Carlos Mendoza Potellá said Venezuelan oil production will not recover quickly
The Daily Journal.- Economist and oil industry expert Carlos Mendoza Potellá said Venezuela has approximately 17,000 abandoned oil wells that the country could reactivate; however, he warned that the process could take years.
“We have 17,000 production-capable wells that we abandoned a long time ago because of the dream of the Orinoco Oil Belt,” he said in an interview with Unión Radio.
The expert said that to begin increasing oil production, the industry “has to drill wells again and reactivate them.” Companies are currently signing contracts for conventional fields. Still, he warned that operators cannot open a well today and expect it to start producing tomorrow, so results will not come immediately.
The challenge of restoring production
Mendoza Potellá emphasized that “we are not going to gain an additional million barrels per day in one year, or even two.” The economist stressed that reactivation work takes time and that “this is a medium- to long-term process.”
He also said companies can invest in Venezuela, but “we have to repair the entire Venezuelan oil industry, including its transportation system, pipelines and refineries.” He added that if companies “start working and see prospects for us to sell, production will begin, but it won’t happen tomorrow,” he concluded.
The specialist also addressed the impact of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. He noted that although the conflict removed oil from the market, prices did not rise above $120 per barrel as expected.
With information from Unión Radio
