Venezuela Oil Summit Draws 250 Companies as Exxon Nears Return Deal

More than 250 companies and 600 senior delegates from over 30 countries convened in Caracas this week for Venezuela's first major oil summit in decades, nine months after the U.S. removed Nicolas Maduro and a U.S.-backed administration overhauled the country's hydrocarbon framework. Chevron pledged over $7 billion over five years to double Venezuelan output to roughly 600,000 barrels per day. Continental Resources signed a memorandum with PDVSA to operate the 30-billion-barrel Ayacucho 2 Block, and Italy's Eni will operate the 35-billion-barrel Junín-5 field. BP, XRG and Qatar's UCC won a license for the Loran offshore gas field. ExxonMobil is nearing a preliminary agreement to explore several fields, the Wall Street Journal reported, potentially returning two decades after Hugo Chavez nationalized its assets in 2007. GeoPark plans $7 billion for the Bare field, targeting 90,000 bpd by 2038.