Venezuela’s new oil minister, Paula Henao, and a senior leader of state oil company PDVSA, E&P Vice President Jovanny Martinez, are scheduled to speak on Tuesday at an oil exploration summit being held outside Houston by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
The speeches will mark the first visit to the U.S. by senior oil officials from the South American country since President Nicolas Maduro was ousted in January by American military forces. Since then, U.S. President Donald Trump has promoted an ambitious plan to restore the country’s oil sector with $100 billion in new investments while authorities in Venezuela rewrite rules to facilitate the effort. Henao was named oil minister in March by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who previously held the post. She arrived in Houston on Sunday evening, according to event organizers, and is expected to hold private meetings with some oil companies, according to a source.
In recent weeks, she has told investors and service providers who want to help increase production that Venezuela needs pumps, frequency converters, wellheads, valves, pipelines, gas compressors and chemicals for drilling, producing, processing and transporting crude and gas.
“Venezuela plays an incredibly important role in strengthening energy security in the Western Hemisphere,” U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Kyle Haustveit said at the conference in The Woodlands, Texas, on Monday, recounting a recent visit to the country’s Orinoco oil belt region.
“For too long, I think we’ve segregated our countries in the Western Hemisphere by the type of energy they produce: the U.S. shale, Canadian heavy oil, offshore Brazil, Venezuela’s heavy oil,” he said. “But if we zoom out, we look at strengthening the Western Hemisphere, we have all the resources, the people, the infrastructure, the refining capacity to make the Western Hemisphere strong in the Americas, strong with energy security, strong with allies.”
Haustveit was seen greeting Venezuela’s diplomatic representative to the U.S., Felix Plasencia, on the sidelines of the event. Speakers on Tuesday will also include representatives from Repsol and Maurel & Prom.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston with additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas; Writing by Nathan Crooks; Editing by Rod Nickel)