Venezuela targets 18% oil output expansion

CARACAS — Venezuela aims to boost oil production by 18 percent this year through planned reforms that will fully open the sector to private investors, the head of state oil giant PDVSA said on Saturday.

"We had a law ... that was not up to date with what we needed as an industry," company CEO Hector Obregon said, adding that the target for 2026 "is to grow by at least 18 percent".

Proposed reforms to the Organic Hydrocarbons Law would update the legal framework in the oil industry "to ensure that private investors can have legal certainty", Obregon said from the Puerto La Cruz refinery in eastern Venezuela.

Analysts say the law proposed by interim president Delcy Rodriguez and adopted in a first parliamentary reading on Thursday was drafted under pressure from Washington after the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from Caracas by United States forces during a raid and airstrikes on Jan 3.

If adopted, the bill would roll back decades of state control over Venezuela's oil sector, which was tightened by president Hugo Chavez in the mid-2000s.

The bill stipulates that private companies domiciled in Venezuela may exploit oil after signing contracts.

"The main idea behind the hydrocarbons law and its reform is for us to increase oil production," said National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez.

"What is the primary objective? To adapt to a situation that allows us to extract the oil from the land that belongs to all Venezuelan women and men," he said.

Quick repairs

Bloomberg News, citing senior administration officials, reported on Saturday that the US is in talks with Chevron, other crude producers, and major oilfield service providers about a plan to quickly raise Venezuela's crude production.

Officials have discussed deploying SLB, Halliburton and Baker Hughes to repair and replace outdated equipment, and refresh older drilling sites, the report said. The White House, Chevron, SLB, Baker Hughes and Halliburton did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said in a New York Post interview published on Saturday that his country has taken the oil from seized Venezuelan tankers and will process it in US refineries.

"Let's put it this way — they don't have any oil. We take the oil," Trump told the newspaper.

Agencies via Xinhua