- EMPRESAS DEL ESTADO
The government moves to value the assets it does not consider essential, to sell them to private buyers or return them to their former owners.
Salidas: venta o devolución · lista y plazo: sin anunciar · comisión de activos: desde el 22-abr
affects former owners of companies taken over by the state and prospective buyers
- TRABAJO
The government plans to raise workers’ income in four steps in 2027, none below the previous quarter’s economic growth.
Tramos en 2027: 4 · piso: crecimiento trimestral · montos, meses y moneda: sin anunciar · ajuste en 2026: no anunciado
affects minimum-income earners and payroll employers
- PETRÓLEO
Repsol is in the final steps of the Petrocarabobo contract, which could reach 210,000 barrels a day gross.
Venezuela, 3T: 72.000 b/d · Petrocarabobo: ~210.000 b/d brutos posibles, ~1/3 para Repsol · cargamentos 2026: 3 de 5
affects Orinoco Belt service suppliers and PDVSA, which pays for gas with crude
Thursday’s address gave the economy instructions with addressees and politics a sequence with no date. Delcy Rodríguez ordered state assets valued and set a floor for 2027 raises, but tied elections to goals with no deadline. The two halves meet in anyone thinking of buying what the state declares non-essential: they will pay according to a valuation whose method is unknown, to a government that has yet to set a date for elections, and both factors go into the price they offer. The first test is the list of assets and the legal instrument that accompanies it; the second, what the fourth round of talks between the government and the 2015 Assembly agrees on November 11 to 15.
The acting president ordered on Thursday the 29th a valuation of the state’s non-essential assets, to offer them to the private sector or return them to their former owners; she gave no list or timetable.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said on Thursday the 29th, in an address to the nation broadcast on state television, that she had ordered “the valuation of non-essential assets in the hands of the state,” which “can be offered to the private sector or returned to their former owners.” She added that the process “is moving forward.” She named no companies, sectors or mechanism, and cited no decree or deadline.
Presidencia de Venezuela ↗Salidas: venta a privados o devolución · lista, método y plazo: sin anunciar · grupos de la comisión del 22-abr: estratégicos, alianzas, no esenciales, liquidaciónThe commission the acting president set up at Miraflores on April 22, with a former head of Conindustria for the private sector, was to sort public holdings into four groups: strategic assets, which remain with the state; partnerships with private firms in which the state keeps ownership; assets its strategic processes do not need; and liquidation. Thursday’s valuation covers the third group and opens two different exits: a sale, which brings revenue to the treasury, and a return, whose terms the message did not specify.
Former owners of companies taken over by the state, who now have a declared path to recover them, and investors with cash to buy what is offered.
The ministries and public entities that now run those assets, which lose their control and budget if the valuation declares them non-essential.
INDICADORThe list of assets the valuation declares non-essential and the legal instrument setting how they are sold or returned. · Sin fecha anunciada; la presidenta encargada dijo el 29 de octubre que el proceso «está avanzando».
The acting president promised on Thursday the 29th all the elections the Constitution requires, under a renewed electoral authority; she said the political horizon is not measured by a date.
In the same address on Thursday the 29th, Delcy Rodríguez said that “there will be elections, all those our Constitution mandates, organized by a renewed electoral authority.” She gave no timeframe: “Venezuela’s political horizon is not measured by a date on the calendar,” but by a sequence of goals, among them a legal reform. Shortly afterward, at her first press conference since returning to the country, María Corina Machado said the sequence laid out by Secretary of State Marco Rubio makes a presidential election in 2027 clear.
Presidencia de Venezuela ↗Fecha electoral: no anunciada · postulaciones al TSJ: abiertas desde el 28-oct · designación del TSJ: prevista el 11-dic · cuarta ronda del diálogo: 11-15 nov · Machado: presidencial en 2027The order the State Department described on October 26 puts a new Supreme Court first, toward year-end; then the electoral authority; and then the declaration of a permanent vacancy, with six months to call a vote. The first step is already under way: the National Assembly opened nominations for the Supreme Court on Wednesday the 28th, with appointments scheduled for December 11. Neither of Thursday’s statements sets the day of the vote.
The executive, which without a committed date gains room to set the order of the steps before the vote.
Anyone signing long-term contracts with the state today, who does not know when the people who will have to honor them will be elected.
INDICADORThe list of Supreme Court nominees and an agreement in the fourth round of talks on how the electoral authority is renewed. · Postulaciones abiertas desde el 28 de octubre; cuarta ronda del diálogo del 11 al 15 de noviembre; designación del TSJ prevista para el 11 de diciembre de 2026.
The acting president announced on Thursday the 29th four income increases for 2027, none smaller than the previous quarter’s economic growth; she gave no amounts, months or currency.
Delcy Rodríguez announced in her address on Thursday the 29th that “in 2027, increases in the income of the country’s workers are planned at four points,” which “in no case may be lower than the economic growth of each preceding quarter.” She said a tripartite table with the main labor federations and business chambers is under way. She gave no months, amounts or currency, and announced no adjustment for the rest of 2026. Education, health and university unions had called a national day of protest over wages for that same Thursday.
Presidencia de Venezuela ↗Aumentos en 2027: cuatro tramos · piso: crecimiento del trimestre previo · PIB 2T-2026: +7,14% interanual (BCV) · inflación ene–sep: 225,3% · salario mínimo: Bs 130 desde mar-2022The floor is tied to economic activity. The latest quarterly growth figure published by the central bank is 7.14% year on year, for the second quarter; prices, by contrast, rose 225.3% from January to September. The message did not say which growth measure will be used or which part of income the increases apply to. That part matters: the minimum wage has stood at 130 bolívares since March 2022, and the comprehensive minimum income is almost entirely bonuses.
Employers, public and private, who know in advance the minimum of each increase; the tripartite table negotiates the rest.
Those who live on the minimum income, in the state or in a company: they have no increase announced until 2027, and the floor follows growth, not prices.
INDICADORThe results of the labor table: months, amounts, currency and the growth measure that will serve as the floor. · Noviembre de 2026, el mes en que la presidenta encargada dijo el 8 de octubre que la mesa daría resultados.
Repsol said on Thursday the 29th that it is in the final steps toward a productive participation contract at Petrocarabobo, in the Orinoco Belt, by year-end, with a possible plateau of 210,000 barrels a day gross.
Repsol reported its third-quarter results on Thursday the 29th. Its chief executive, Josu Jon Imaz, told analysts that the company is in the final steps of negotiating the Petrocarabobo contract, in the Orinoco Belt, and that there will be relevant news before year-end. He estimated a plateau of about 210,000 barrels a day gross, of which Repsol would hold about a third. In the quarter it produced 72,000 barrels a day in Venezuela and collected three of the five crude cargoes it receives this year as payment for its gas.
Repsol ↗Producción en Venezuela, 3T: 72.000 b/d · Petrocarabobo: meseta posible ~210.000 b/d brutos, ~1/3 para Repsol · Cardón IV: 580 → 645 MMpcd en 1T-2028 · cargamentos 2026: 3 cobrados de 5Imaz set out the order of priorities: getting paid comes first today. Repsol is paid in crude for the gas it produces at Cardón IV, and an additional cargo finances the field’s expansion from 580 to 645 million cubic feet a day, planned for the first quarter of 2028. Petrocarabobo is a new heavy oil development; with it and Petroquiriquire, the company aims to triple its liquids output in the country in three years.
Repsol, which is paid in cargoes for what it produces and adds about a third of a new field in the Orinoco Belt.
PDVSA as a seller: it pays for Cardón IV gas with crude, and each cargo delivered to Repsol is a barrel it does not sell for cash.
INDICADORThe signing of the Petrocarabobo productive participation contract and the two cargoes Repsol expects to receive before year-end. · Antes del 31 de diciembre de 2026, según Repsol.
Delcy Rodríguez said on Thursday the 29th that 61 hydrocarbon contracts have been signed with domestic and international investors under the parameters of the new Hydrocarbons Law, and that 44 more agreements are under negotiation.
It is the government’s measure of the opening’s pace since January’s reform of the Hydrocarbons Law, and it comes without a breakdown: it does not separate production contracts from service agreements or say how many already have barrels. What turns the count into output is wells, and wells need equipment. Innovex, a maker of well tools, told the SEC on Thursday the 29th that it returned to Venezuela in the third quarter. The independent measure will come with OPEC’s November monthly report, which will carry October production.
The question for next week is whether Washington once again holds back the holders of the PDVSA 2020 bonds. From Thursday the 5th, OFAC’s License 5Z authorizes dealings in that bond, whose collateral is 50.1% of Citgo Holding, unless another one is issued first. In 2026 OFAC has already replaced this license six times, always on the eve of its taking effect. This time the deadline comes nine days after the Second Circuit confirmed, on Tuesday the 27th, that the collateral is valid.
- →Viernes 30 de octubre, conferencia a las 11:00 ET — Chevron reports quarterly results — it may show how much it produces and collects in Venezuela, where Repsol said on Thursday that getting paid comes first
- →Martes 3 de noviembre — U.S. midterm elections — they are the first U.S. general elections since Maduro’s capture on January 3, and they renew the Congress that legislates on sanctions
- →Jueves 5 de noviembre — License 5Z on the PDVSA 2020 bond takes effect, unless replaced again — it would open the way for holders to enforce their collateral on Citgo Holding
- →The central bank publishes October inflation — it will show whether the monthly pace falls toward 5.9%, the rate consistent with the double-digit target the central bank and Finance set for 2027
HOW OUR CALLS ARE DOING
indicators we issued in earlier editionsOn October 26 we set a watch on the Caracas Stock Exchange’s IBC and financial index in the sessions after the bank holiday, following a week in which the IBC fell 8.72%.
The decline continued. The IBC closed on Thursday the 29th at 8,780.10 points, 3.34% below the close on Friday the 23rd, and the financial index fell 2.00% that day. Of the shares quoted on Thursday, 4 rose and 10 fell.