Venezuela’s Oil Renaissance Runs on People
In just over two weeks, more than 12,000 people have applied to work at NABEP, and more than 1,800 companies have registered to become our suppliers and contractors. That’s far more interest than we saw before our August 31st agreement with the U.S. government, with applicants seeking roles in drilling, field operations, maintenance, logistics and safety in an industry that is growing again.
It’s a sign of something bigger than any one company. Venezuela’s oil industry was built by generations of engineers, field workers and local businesses, and its renaissance will be built the same way: by the workers who stayed, the professionals who left and are starting to return, and the companies that supply, build and service the fields. We’re at the beginning of a new era, and it’s taking all of them.
The people who stayed
Today, NABEP employs about 5,000 people directly and works with more than 10,000 contractors. The applications we’ve received since mid-October show how much more talent is ready to join them. Every rig we bring in needs crews, and every well we revive needs technicians.
The companies that keep it running
The 1,800 companies that have registered to work with us are as important as the rigs. Every new field needs local businesses for transport, maintenance, logistics and services, and every contract keeps a Venezuelan company growing and its employees working. That’s how an oil recovery becomes an industrial one.
The first to come home
Earlier this year, many Venezuelan oil workers abroad weren’t ready. In March, Bloomberg spoke with more than a dozen of them and found most were holding off on a return.
That’s starting to change. Since August 31st, applications have begun arriving from Venezuelan professionals abroad, including in the United States and Spain, two of the places where many Venezuelan energy professionals built new lives. The first of them have already joined our team, bringing back skills, networks and perspective the country lost when they left.
The pull of this moment reaches beyond the diaspora, too. A drilling professional with 25 years of experience applied from Colombia. He has worked for Total, Chevron and others in Iraq, Kuwait and, years earlier, Venezuela. He has since joined our team, bringing that experience back to Venezuelan fields.
Every rig creates opportunity
Every rig that arrives creates jobs, and every barrel we produce funds more of them. That cycle is speeding up.
As Bloomberg reported on Oct. 23, NABEP is deploying its sixth drilling rig in Venezuela. Three rigs are already working in the Junín area of the Orinoco Belt, and three more are on the way, including one that just arrived. By mid-October, our output had reached about 223,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, roughly 20,000 more than in August.
The cash flow from our own wells pays for that growth. NABEP has reinvested close to $1 billion of its net revenues over the past two years, and is now reinvesting hundreds of millions of dollars each month.
The road ahead is long, and it runs through people. We are bringing in 60 rigs, 30 steam boilers and 70 pieces of heavy construction equipment, with a target of 500,000 barrels per day by the end of 2028. Every one of those rigs needs engineers, geologists, technicians and managers, and we want to fill those roles with Venezuelans, whether they never left or are coming home.
A new era
No single company can rebuild an industry alone. It takes workers, engineers, suppliers and contractors, and communities willing to build their careers here again. Reversing the diaspora won’t happen overnight, but it starts with work worth coming home for.
Whether you’ve spent your career in Venezuela’s oil fields or abroad, or you run a business that wants to be part of this, we’d like to hear from you. Email us here: hr@nabep.com
