Venezuela's Oil Recovery Gains Momentum as New Drilling Rigs Arrive
Pakistan Faces Winter Gas Shortages if Hormuz LNG Remains Choked Cyril Widdershoven is a senior maritime, energy, and geopolitical analyst and Senior Advisor at Blue Water Strategy, specialising in the strategic intersection of shipping, ports,… Eleven new 550-horsepower workover rigs will work in Venezuela’s oil fields this month.
According to North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), which announced the deployment on 13 October, they are the first new mobile repair-and-maintenance units to enter the country’s fields in more than 15 years.
Two 1,500-horsepower drilling rigs arrived on 7 October, with more equipment to follow.
The company says it has now bought 60 rigs, 30 steam boilers and 70 pieces of heavy machinery, which it describes as the country's largest heavy-equipment fleet.
On its own, a rig delivery is a small item.
Its significance lies in what it is attached to.
NABEP says its production has grown from 18,000 barrels per day to more than 200,000 in two years, backed by about $1 billion in company-funded investment, a figure it first published on 31 August when it announced its agreement with the US government.
“NABEP is making serious and steady progress in increasing oil production,” said Alejandro Betancourt, the company’s founder and chief executive.
The new rigs are the physical means by which that number is supposed to keep rising.
Oil markets lack barrels they can rely on.
Brent is holding above $100, tanker attacks around the Strait of Hormuz keep coming, and freight and insurance costs are at record levels.
Refiners from the US Gulf Coast to India want heavy crude that does not have to pass a chokepoint, and India’s imports of Venezuelan oil have just reached a seven-year high.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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