NABEP plans 50-rig Venezuelan drilling push backed by Trump administration

Plan targets 65 billion barrels across 17 Venezuelan oil fields

NABEP is aiming to deploy six drilling rigs into its Venezuelan oil fields by the end of 2026, according to internal documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The company plans to bring 12 more rigs online in 2027 and then add another two rigs per month in 2028 and beyond — eventually reaching a fleet of 52. The rollout is meant to “turbocharge” the country’s “anemic” crude production, the Journal reported.

The rig schedule is the first concrete description of how the Trump administration’s deal to take a direct stake in some of Venezuela’s prized oil reserves would actually work. Under the plan, the U.S. would hold a direct stake in NABEP, which would develop 17 Venezuelan oil fields holding about 65 billion barrels of oil — roughly one-fifth of the country’s reserves. NABEP aims to operate many of its fields independently, according to people familiar with the matter. A company spokesman said NABEP does not comment on commercial matters.

Legal experts and oil executives are questioning whether the arrangement is lawful under Venezuela’s constitution and whether it can survive political turnover in either country. Ed Chow, a former Chevron executive and nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the structure introduces new uncertainty for would-be investors in Venezuela’s energy sector.

“This raises more uncertainties” for companies looking to invest in Venezuela, Chow said. “For a capital intensive, long-term industry, uncertainty slows you down. Sometimes it freezes you.”

The 17 fields NABEP aims to develop sit inside an oil sector that holds some of the world’s largest proven reserves but has seen production dwindle over the past decade to about 1.2 million barrels a day. That compares with roughly 2.5 million barrels a day in 2014, when about 220 drilling rigs were active in the country. Estimates of the number of rigs now active in Venezuela range from two to two dozen, analysts told the Journal. U.S. officials have said NABEP, once developed, would rank as the second-largest corporate holder of proven reserves after Saudi Aramco.

NABEP has acquired 23 new drilling rigs sourced from U.S. contractors Helmerich & Payne, Precision Drilling, and Patterson-UTI Energy, the documents show. The company also has plans for about 30 workover rigs — equipment used to maintain, repair, and boost output from existing wells — many of which are currently under construction.

The company is funding the drilling campaign itself, using cash flow from its existing oil production, according to people familiar with the matter. NABEP currently pumps 200,000 barrels of oil a day and is the second-largest private producer in Venezuela behind Chevron. If the rollout proceeds as planned, the people said, the deal with the Trump administration could allow NABEP to eclipse Chevron’s output in Venezuela within a few years. Chevron currently produces almost 300,000 barrels a day in the country and is the only major U.S. oil company operating there.