The Daily Journal.— U.S. oil exploration company Aspect Holdings will develop several fields in eastern Venezuela over the coming years as part of a new exploration agreement with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), company President Alex Cranberg announced Wednesday.
The parties signed the agreement “for a joint technical and economic feasibility study for the development of the Oficina Norte exploration areas” at Miraflores Palace during an event in which the Venezuelan government formalized a new series of agreements for the hydrocarbons sector under the supervision of U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who visited Caracas.
Cranberg, president of the Denver-based company, said the agreement will allow the parties to evaluate new exploration opportunities in a country that, in his view, still holds significant potential for discoveries.
“Discovery is not over in Venezuela,” he said during the signing ceremony. “There are wonderful resources in the [Orinoco] Belt, in the Gulf of Venezuela and elsewhere. And there are many new resources that we can discover.”
Aspect Holdings describes itself as a privately held exploration company with experience in approximately 800 wells across several countries. The company enters Venezuela as the country seeks foreign capital and technology to revive an oil industry that has suffered for years from insufficient investment and international restrictions.
Capital and technology for exploration
Cranberg said the company will contribute technical expertise, financial capacity and a willingness to take risks in the projects it plans to develop alongside state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela.
“We bring a lot to the agreement: expertise, an appetite for risk and capital,” Cranberg said. He also highlighted the work that the company and Venezuelan technical teams have carried out over recent months to assess the feasibility of new exploration activities.
“Together with PDVSA, we realized that we have excellent, first-class technical professionals, and we have learned a great deal from them,” he added.
The company plans to develop a portfolio of assets in the country gradually. “We are going to develop a series of fields over the next few years,” Cranberg said.
Cranberg said Aspect aims to establish a long-term presence in Venezuela and participate not only in oil operations but also in initiatives involving nearby communities and environmental management.
“We want our presence to make an impact in several areas: on site, in environmental stewardship and in neighboring communities, and we want to remain here for a very long time,” he said.
Venezuela seeks to expand oil investment
The agreement with Aspect forms part of a new wave of deals signed this week to expand international companies’ participation in Venezuela’s energy sector.
Cranberg described Venezuela as a market with favorable geological and technical conditions for a new phase of exploration.
“Venezuela is an explorer’s dream. It has great geology and people who know the oil fields well,” he said.
The executive linked the development of the new projects to workforce training and knowledge transfer between Venezuela and the United States.
“We need to train people both in the United States and here in Venezuela so they can take advantage of this opportunity,” he said.
Cranberg said the new investments could usher in a period of expansion for Venezuela’s oil industry. “May these signings go down in history as a moment that creates prosperity for the Venezuelan people,” he said.
