Oilfield service company SLB can rapidly increase its activities in Venezuela, provided the appropriate licensing, safety parameters and compliance measures are in place, it said on Friday. SLB was among the oil companies that met with the White House to discuss potential investment in Venezuela after the U.S. ousted President Nicolas Maduro in early January.
“We are already receiving a lot of inquiries from our customers,” CEO Olivier Le Peuch said during a post-earnings conference call.
“Obviously, I would have to preface this with the right conditions, including licensing, including payments and operating licence would have to be put in place,” Le Peuch said. Similarly, rival oilfield service provider Halliburton, which also met with the White House, said earlier this week it would seek to re-enter Venezuela as soon as commercial and legal terms, including payment certainty, were resolved.
Halliburton said it was working through the mechanics around licences that it said were certain to fall in place.
Houston-based SLB said on Friday it was the only international service company actively operating in Venezuela, delivering services for an integrated oil company under the oil major’s licence. SLB on Friday reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit and said it had maintained active facilities, equipment, and local personnel on the ground in Venezuela.
Chevron is the only U.S. oil major currently producing crude in Venezuela, with some 240,000 barrels per day in joint ventures with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Tanay Dhumal in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis)