- PETRÓLEO
A PDVSA vice president said NABEP could reach in six to seven years the million barrels the operator calls a near-term goal.
NABEP: 223.509 bpe/d, dato de un solo día · flota: 41 de 60 equipos en noviembre · producción nacional: ~1,2 MMb/d
affects those projecting Venezuelan output and NABEP’s suppliers
- BOLSA
The Caracas Stock Exchange has fallen for two weeks: the IBC is down 14.75%, and in dollars at the official rate its gain for the year goes from about 62% to about 37%.
IBC: 8.483,27 · semana: −6,61% · dos semanas: −14,75% · en el año: +307,41% en bolívares
affects holders of Venezuelan stocks and companies preparing share issues
- ELECTRICIDAD
IMPSA began rehabilitating the Macagua and Tocoma plants with Corpoelec, the state power company, and promises to restore 160 MW in 90 days; the contract’s value is confidential.
Macagua: 160 MW en 90 días · primera fase: 672 MW en 24 meses · GE Vernova: sin primer pago
affects households and industries living with rationing
The opening’s timelines are stretching in the words of its own actors. For the state company, the million barrels the operator calls a near-term goal could take NABEP six to seven years. IMPSA promises at Macagua the same 90 days announced in August, and GE Vernova will not start without its first payment. The Caracas Stock Exchange is no help in gauging this: in two weeks its gain for the year in dollars went from about 62% to about 37%. Only about $680,000 traded in the latest. The first test is OPEC’s November report: whether it reflects the roughly 23,000 barrels NABEP says it has added since August. The immediate item: whether Portugal’s mission, with more than 30 companies, signs anything before Tuesday.
↳ No contracts or amounts had been announced on arrival. Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said on Friday the 30th that four compatriots remain imprisoned for political reasons.
↳ Article 16 leaves the exit to case-by-case revocations: the first batch will show who stops withholding VAT.
↳ With one chamber, Democrats would have subpoena power from January over Washington’s agreement with NABEP.
↳ OFAC has already replaced it six times in 2026, always on the eve. It is the first date since the Second Circuit upheld the collateral over 50.1% of Citgo Holding.
↳ Preliminary lists are due the next day; the talks will show whether reform of the Comptroller’s law advances.
The central bank’s reserves stood at $12.988 billion on October 28, after falling $630 million in the week to the 23rd.
Reserves ended 2025 at $13.306 billion, with Brent near $61. On Friday Brent closed at $113, and reserves are $318 million lower. This is not a measure of oil income: that money is deposited in U.S. Treasury accounts and leaves when the State Department authorizes it. The series also moves with gold, and the bullion in London alone equals about a third. To know how much cash Venezuela has, the balance of that account is missing.
NABEP reported on Saturday the 31st that it produced 223,509 barrels of oil equivalent on October 19; a PDVSA vice president speaks of six to seven more years to reach one million.
NABEP, whose parent company is 35% held by the U.S. government, reported on Saturday the 31st that it produced 223,509 barrels of oil equivalent on October 19, up from about 200,000 in August, and that its fleet will reach 41 of the 60 announced rigs in November. It has nine drilling rigs, three of them active in Junín 10. Its near-term goal is to exceed one million barrels a day. Jovanny Martínez, a PDVSA vice president, told state media last week that NABEP could reach it in six to seven years.
PDVSA (Jovanny Martínez) — Reuters, vía US News ↗Producción de un día: 223.509 bpe/d · perforación: 9 taladros, 3 activos · reacondicionamiento: 20 en el país, 15 en camino · PDVSA: 6-7 años al millón · Chevron: ~300.000 b/d brutos a fin de añoThe million is nearly all of today’s national output, about 1.2 million barrels a day. The output figure is for a single day and in barrels of oil equivalent, which include gas; it is not a crude average. Most of the fleet, 35 rigs, repairs existing wells and does not open new ones. In the Maracaibo basin, about 80% of roughly 4,000 inactive wells need repair. Chevron said on Friday the 30th that its three ventures will reach about 300,000 gross barrels by year-end.
Rig makers and refurbishers: four more rigs are coming from Houston, Brazil and Colombia.
Local contractors, if the payment delays being reported without figures are confirmed (NABEP says all invoices are being paid), and anyone projecting Venezuelan supply on the operator’s timeline.
INDICADORThat NABEP publishes a monthly crude average and that October output rises in OPEC’s secondary sources. · Noviembre de 2026, informe mensual de la OPEP con la producción de octubre.
The IBC closed on Friday the 30th at 8,483.27 points, down 14.75% from two weeks earlier. In dollars at the official rate, its gain for the year fell from about 62% to about 37%.
The IBC, the Caracas Stock Exchange’s main index, closed on Friday the 30th at 8,483.27 points, down 6.61% over four sessions and 3.38% that day alone. Two weeks earlier it stood at 9,950.70. In bolívares it is still up 307.41% on the year. In dollars at the official rate that gain is about 37%, after nearing 62% in mid-October, by our own calculation.
Bolsa de Valores de Caracas ↗IBC: 8.483,27 · dos semanas: −14,75% · en el año: +307,41% en bolívares, ~+37% en dólares al tipo oficial · acciones negociadas: Bs 604 M (~US$680.000)It is a thin market. Over the four sessions, Bs 604 million in shares changed hands, about $680,000 at the official rate; 72% of that was for forward settlement rather than spot, and BNC and Provincial accounted for 41%. At that depth, a few orders are enough to move the index, and a $1 million position exceeds everything traded in the week. The exchange’s weekly summary gives no cause for the drop.
Those arriving with liquid bolívares to buy after the drop, and holders of Impulsa and Protinal, up 89.05% and 35.45% on the week.
Those who bought near the 10,000 points of mid-October and companies preparing share issues, which come to market with the index retreating.
INDICADORThe IBC’s close on Friday, November 6, against this Friday’s 8,483.27 points. · Viernes 6 de noviembre de 2026, resumen semanal de la Bolsa de Caracas.
IMPSA and Corpoelec, the state power company, began rehabilitating the Macagua and Tocoma plants on Thursday the 29th: 160 MW in 90 days and 672 MW in 24 months. The contract’s value is confidential.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez remotely led the start of work on Thursday the 29th to rehabilitate the Macagua and Tocoma hydroelectric plants, carried out by IMPSA with Corpoelec, the state power company. At Macagua, units 5 and 6 are to restore 160 MW in 90 days; the first phase totals 672 MW in 24 months. When the addendum was signed on August 12, the announced deadline for those two units was already 90 days.
IMPSA — vía iProfesional ↗Macagua: 160 MW en 90 días, 240 MW en 12 meses · Tocoma: 432 MW en 24 meses · plan maestro: hasta 2.640 MW · pendiente con IMPSA: US$80 MJorge Salcedo, IMPSA’s president, said on September 1 that the project’s funds are in the United States, authorized by OFAC and the Treasury for critical power infrastructure, and declined to disclose the contract’s value. IMPSA is also owed $80 million for earlier work, which requires separate licenses. GE Vernova said on Wednesday the 28th that it will not execute without being paid first, and did not say where that payment will come from. The electricity law reform has 13 articles approved on second reading.
IMPSA, which returns to Venezuela with work under way, a confidential contract and an old debt to negotiate.
Households and businesses under rationing, which have no date for the first 1,000 MW the government promised with GE Vernova.
INDICADORThe arrival of the 160 MW from Macagua units 5 and 6 and the state’s first payment to GE Vernova. · Hacia fines de enero de 2027, si los 90 días corren desde el 29 de octubre; el pago a GE Vernova no tiene fecha.
On Wednesday the 28th, Grupo Nutresa closed the purchase of 100% of Industrias Tío Rico, Venezuela’s ice cream leader with more than 55% of the market. It did not disclose the price.
Grupo Nutresa, Colombia’s largest processed-food producer, reported that on Wednesday the 28th it closed the purchase of 100% of Industrias Tío Rico and has controlled it since that day. It receives the brands, the Guacara plant in Carabobo state, a 210,000 m² industrial complex and five distribution centers with national coverage. Nutresa did not disclose the price; a figure near $30 million is being reported, without confirmation from the company.
Grupo Nutresa — vía Portafolio ↗Cuota en helados: >55% (cifra de julio) · complejo de Guacara: 210.000 m² · 5 centros de distribución · ventas de Nutresa en Venezuela: ~US$14 M en 2025, ~US$300 M en 2008 · precio: no reveladoIts chief financial officer, Andrés Bernal, had said Tío Rico gives it sales teams and distribution networks to export more products from Colombia. Its sales in Venezuela were about $14 million in 2025, against about $300 million in 2008. Empresas Polar, owner of Efe, announced the purchase of Ricos Products in San Antonio on Friday the 30th, U.S., without disclosing the amount; no link between the two deals is on record.
Nutresa, which enters with a national network it did not have to build, and its plants in Colombia, if that network fills with its own products.
Venezuelan mass-consumption food manufacturers, if Colombian products take their shelf space; no figure measures that yet.
INDICADORWhether Nutresa declares investment in the Guacara plant and Venezuelan sales of its own, or only more exports from Colombia. · Informe del cuarto trimestre de Grupo Nutresa, a comienzos de 2027: el primero con Tío Rico tras el cierre del 28 de octubre; la fecha no está anunciada.
HOW OUR CALLS ARE DOING
indicators we issued in earlier editionsOn October 28 we set a watch on who applies to the Supreme Court and whether the fourth round of talks agrees on reforming the Comptroller’s law.
The National Assembly reported that through Friday the 30th it had received 145 applications, 123 of them for justice; the deadline is November 11.