- ENERGÍA
Venezuela signs a productive-participation contract with a US oil company in Houston
Campos Caro y Carisito, en el oriente del país · alianza marco con SLB para estudio integrado de yacimientos · suscrito el 18 de agosto en la conferencia IMAGE
affects anyone waiting for a sign that the July oil regulation's terms are already being accepted in writing
- TELECOM
The telecoms regulator closes consultation on the three rules that will set fixed-internet quality
109 aportes de operadores y usuarios · velocidad mínima exigible en redes alámbricas e inalámbricas · puntos de intercambio de tráfico nacional · audiencia pública anunciada sin fecha
affects anyone weighing entry into Venezuela's internet market who needs to know what will be required of them
- MINERÍA
The local counsel of a miner with an unsettled award says the company is staying in the country
Yacimientos Las Brisas y Las Claritas, municipio Sifontes del estado Bolívar · derechos mineros de la empresa mixta revocados por el Ministerio de Minas en 2022 · acuerdo transaccional de 2016 sin liquidar por completo
affects anyone pricing what it costs to come back to a Venezuelan mining asset against what it costs to enter fresh
The contract Venezuela's hydrocarbons minister signed in Houston was struck over two fields and no debt: Hunt Oil enters Caro and Carisito with nothing to claim and nothing to settle for what came before. In gold it works the other way. A shareholder already once inside is preparing to return to Bolívar with a title the state revoked in 2022 and a 2016 agreement never fully settled. Entering new and coming back do not cost the same, and the difference is set not by sanctions but by the file each party left open with the state. Telecoms runs on its own track: there the rules are still being written. Beneath all of it runs the naphtha, and if that input is interrupted the 1.245 million barrels a day targeted for the end of August will not hold.
US under secretary of energy Kyle Haustveit put US naphtha moving to Venezuela to be blended with heavy crude at more than 100,000 barrels a day on August 18. Flowing the other way are more than 500,000 barrels a day to US refineries, out of output near 1.25 million.
Orinoco Belt crude does not move on its own: it is too heavy to travel by pipeline without a diluent to thin it, and for years the scarcity of that diluent was the effective ceiling on output. More than 100,000 barrels a day now arriving from the United States means the production increase has an imported input on its critical path. Anyone assessing the 1.245 million barrels a day PDVSA set for month-end should watch that flow before the signing announcements: a contract is signed once, a diluent has to be shipped every week.
Venezuela's hydrocarbons minister signed a productive-participation contract with Hunt Oil over the Caro and Carisito fields on August 18 in Houston, plus a framework alliance with SLB for reservoir studies.
Hydrocarbons minister Paula Henao signed a Hydrocarbons Productive Participation Contract with US-based Hunt Oil in Houston on August 18, to develop and raise output at the Caro and Carisito fields in the country's east. At the same event she signed a framework alliance with SLB, formerly Schlumberger, for integrated reservoir studies and technical characterization of operating areas. The delegation included PDVSA executive vice president Jovanny Martínez. Both agreements sit under the oil reform's regulation.
Ministerio de Hidrocarburos / Hunt Oil ↗Contrato de Participación Productiva · campos Caro y Carisito, oriente del país · alianza marco con SLB para estudio integrado de yacimientos · firmado el 18 de agosto en la conferencia IMAGE, HoustonThe productive-participation contract is the vehicle the reform created so a private operator can lift crude directly, without a joint venture where the state keeps the majority. July's regulation priced it: the combined royalty-and-integrated-tax rate runs from 20% on an undeveloped field to 35% on one developed and producing, and it also requires the operator to generate its own power. What was signed in Houston is observable evidence those terms are already being accepted in writing.
SLB, paid for reservoir characterization nationwide whoever wins each area.
The joint venture as a vehicle. Every field that leaves through a participation contract is a field PDVSA no longer contributes to a company where it kept majority ownership.
INDICADORwhether the hydrocarbons ministry publishes the combined rate applied to Caro and Carisito, or the contract text · en las semanas siguientes a la firma del 18 de agosto; ningún organismo ha fijado fecha de publicación
Conatel closed the public consultation on three rules setting minimum fixed-internet speed, national traffic exchange points and licence attributes. It received 109 submissions.
Conatel, the telecoms regulator, said on August 18 that it had closed public consultation on three instruments: general conditions for establishing national internet traffic exchange points, internet service quality parameters, and reform of the attributes attached to general licences. Consultation ran from June 30 to July 14 and was extended to August 3 because of June's earthquake. It drew 109 submissions from operators and users. The body announced a public hearing at its headquarters without setting a date.
Conatel ↗109 aportes de operadores y usuarios · tres providencias: intercambio de tráfico nacional, calidad de internet y atributos de habilitaciones · consulta del 30 de junio al 3 de agostoA national traffic exchange point keeps data between two Venezuelan users from leaving the country and returning: it cuts latency and trims the international capacity bill, a local operator's heaviest hard-currency cost. The quality rule pushes the other way on the same ledger, because an enforceable minimum speed forces network investment. The 109 submissions received indicate the sector read this as setting a service floor and a cost structure before new licences are handed out.
The operator with its own network already deployed, certifying the minimum speed without fresh investment.
The small wireless internet provider, competing on price over shared links.
INDICADORwhether Conatel convenes the announced public hearing and publishes the ordinances in the Official Gazette · el organismo anunció la audiencia el 18 de agosto sin fecha; la publicación en Gaceta es el paso que las vuelve exigibles
Gold Reserve's legal representative in Venezuela, released in August, said the company will stay and press ahead on its deposits in Sifontes, Bolívar state.
José Ignacio Moreno Suárez, Gold Reserve's legal representative in Venezuela, was released in August and said the company will not leave the country. The miner is claiming compensation from the state over the Las Brisas and Las Claritas deposits in Sifontes, Bolívar state. In 2022 the mines ministry revoked the mining rights of Siembra Minera, the joint venture formed in 2016 with 55% held by the state and 45% by the company, as the miner told its shareholders at the time. That year's settlement agreement was never fully paid out.
Gold Reserve ↗Las Brisas y Las Claritas, Sifontes, estado Bolívar · Siembra Minera constituida en 2016 con 55% del Estado y 45% de la compañía · derechos mineros revocados en 2022In Venezuelan gold the asset and the debt are one file. The company holds both a 2016 settlement the state never finished paying and a joint-venture title revoked in 2022, so any return forces both to be settled at the same table: whoever collects concedes part of the claim, and whoever operates needs the title to exist again. That is the difference with crude, where a new entrant signs over a field it has no history with.
The creditor with an award and physical presence in the country, negotiating collection and operation at once.
The incoming miner with no prior history, finding Bolívar's best areas already carrying someone else's claim.
INDICADORwhether the mines ministry formally reverses the 2022 revocation or issues a new title over Las Brisas and Las Claritas · sin plazo anunciado por ningún organismo; el acto se publicaría en Gaceta Oficial y el corte de control es el 30 de septiembre de 2026