Venezuela is emerging as an unexpected beneficiary of turmoil in the Middle East, with oil companies large and small taking a serious second look at the country’s vast reserves.
Industry lawyers and consultants familiar with the matter say firms have shown renewed interest in committing to drill in Venezuela after nearly six months of reluctance following the U.S. removal of Nicolás Maduro.
The newly exposed fragility of Middle Eastern energy supply, put on full display by fighting between the U.S., Israel, and Iran, has become one of the largest deciding factors driving this shift.
Jason Bennett, global projects director at law firm Baker Botts, said the mood has changed across the industry, noting that Venezuela is “looking pretty good right now, despite their historical problems.”
Bennett added that companies broadly share the view “that there’s a long-term disruption going on all over the market,” a sentiment that is reshaping how firms assess political and operational risk in Venezuela.
Small independent firms including Hunt Oil, HKN Energy, and Crossover Energy have already signed memorandums of understanding, pledging to continue discussions toward more permanent drilling agreements in a country holding the world’s largest oil reserves.
Venezuela has a troubled history of appropriating industry assets, yet companies are growing increasingly fearful of missing out on prime acreage as both the Trump administration and Caracas promise fields to early movers.
Elias Ferrer, director of the Caracas-based advisory firm Orinoco Research, said interim President Delcy RodrÃguez has allowed companies to essentially “call dibs” on oil fields without a binding contract, triggering a competitive rush for acreage.
“There’s a bit of, like, FOMO,” Ferrer said, adding that “it’s first-come, first-serve, so that’s why everyone wants to come in and ask for a field before someone else is going to get it.”
Ferrer said “most” of Venezuela’s oil fields are now under an MOU or initial agreement with an oil company, many of them U.S. firms that traveled to the country alongside high-level Trump administration officials.
Those companies are now working to craft binding production contracts with state-run Petróleos de Venezuela, marking a significant escalation from the preliminary agreement phase.
The conflict involving Iran has also sparked renewed interest from countries in Asia and Europe that are struggling to secure alternative sources of oil, according to Ferrer.
India became the second-largest importer of Venezuelan oil in May, and RodrÃguez visited the country earlier this month as diplomatic and commercial ties deepened.
Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council, addressed the momentum at POLITICO’s Energy Summit, stating that Venezuela is moving from the MOU phase into binding contract territory.
“It’s progressed significantly over the last couple weeks,” Agen said, adding that finalizing binding contracts “is going to send a big signal to the world.”
Venezuela’s oil exports have climbed to their highest levels since 2018, and the Trump administration is framing the development as a foreign policy and energy dominance success story heading into the second half of 2026.
