North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) is deploying new workover and drilling rigs in Venezuela as it reports output above 200,000 barrels per day. Rystad Energy's estimate points the same way, though the company's $100 billion investment plan is still a program, not deployed capital.
Eleven new 550-horsepower workover rigs will work in Venezuela's oil fields this month, according to NABEP, which announced the deployment on 13 October. The company says they are the first new mobile repair-and-maintenance units to enter the country's fields in more than 15 years. Two 1,500-horsepower drilling rigs arrived on 7 October, with more equipment to follow.
Tight markets raise the stakes for Venezuelan barrels
The timing matters because oil markets lack barrels they can rely on. Brent is holding above $100 while tanker attacks around the Strait of Hormuz continue. Meanwhile, Oilprice.com's analyst writes that India's imports of Venezuelan oil have just reached a seven-year high.
Venezuela holds the world's largest proven reserves and produces about 1 million barrels per day, a third of what it once did.
Company and Rystad figures agree on direction
NABEP says production has grown from approximately 18,000 barrels per day to more than 200,000 in two years, backed by about $1 billion in company-funded investment. Independently, Rystad Energy assesses that production across operations associated with NABEP rose from 90,000 barrels per day at the end of 2024 to 200,000 today.
The two measure different periods and scopes, so they should not be set against each other. Still, both land at around 200,000 barrels per day.
PetroZamora shows how the recovery works
The clearest case is PetroZamora in the west, which NABEP has operated since April 2024. According to the company, the fields were producing about 18,000 barrels per day at the start of that year and 100,000 by mid-2026.
NABEP credits restarted gas compression plants at Ceuta, portable steam generators at Bachaquero and Lagunillas, and the return of service rigs to existing wells. The new workover rigs apply the same method at greater scale.
Larger targets remain unproven
NABEP's stated near-term goal is to lift output above one million barrels per day, and the August agreement is expected, in the company's words, to involve $100 billion of investment. That would mean extending what has been done on a handful of assets to 17, including greenfield blocks in the Orinoco Belt.
Heavy-oil production also depends on diluent, power, and export logistics that no single company controls, and monthly output will not move in a straight line.
Source: Oilprice.com
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