Firms including Chevron, ONGC, GE Vernova on track to sign final pacts in Venezuela, sources say

By Marianna Parraga and Deisy Buitrago

HOUSTON/CARACAS, Aug ‌31 (Reuters) - U.S. companies Chevron ​and GE ​Vernova, India's ONGC, Italy's Eni and Colombia's GeoPark are on track to sign final agreements in Venezuela after months of negotiations to firm up energy projects in the OPEC country, five sources close to ‌the preparations said.

Most of the pacts imply completion of a six-month migration of oil contracts to ⁠an amended hydrocarbon law now giving more flexibility to foreign firms to expand and operate oilfields, export the barrels and cash sale proceeds, the sources ‌said. Others set terms for new energy ‌and electricity projects.

The list of companies lining up to sign has not been finalized as executives are rushing to complete negotiations at the last minute, two of the sources said.

Chevron's agreements with Venezuela are expected to be "of significant size," ​according to one of the sources.

The company is trying to add a block in the vast Orinoco Belt to its portfolio, which would allow one of its joint projects with state-run PDVSA to expand, two sources said, and Chevron ⁠also aims to negotiate an area in Monagas North that could become a key source of diluents for its extra-heavy oil output.

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump ​told reporters that U.S. energy majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron were among companies committed to invest in Venezuela. He did not elaborate.

A separate source said GeoPark has progressed in negotiations for ​the Bare heavy oilfield also in the Orinoco, which could give the ‌company access to up to 1 billion barrels of reserves.

Eni, which shares the large Perla offshore gas project with Repsol and has a partnership with PDVSA for the Corocoro oilfield, said it ⁠was working with its Venezuelan counterparties and any other authorities to "support the revitalization of the country's energy sector."

Chevron, GE Vernova, ONGC, GeoPark, Venezuela's oil ministry and state-run energy firm PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The agreements, which could be inked as early as this ⁠week, are separate from a massive Caracas-Washington pact announced last week for the U.S. to lock in a stake in 17 oilfields with ​some 64 billion barrels of proved reserves, a fifth of Venezuela's total crude reserves.

The 17 fields, in the vast Orinoco Belt and Lake Maracaibo, are expected to produce as much as 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in the long term, which would more than double ‌Venezuela's current output of 1.25 million bpd, authorities have said.

Asked when the Venezuela oil deal would lead to increased oil production, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said there was already "a ‌significant increase in oil production out of Venezuela."

"They're (oil prices) sort of much more stable in part because what we see coming out of ⁠Venezuela," he told reporters. "The 65 billion-barrel reserve is a ‌big part of that we're already ​seeing."

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Sheila Dang in Houston, Deisy Buitrago in Caracas and Nelson Bocanegra in Bogota; additional reporting by Jacob Bogage at Joint Base Andrews. Editing by Nathan Crooks, Timothy Gardner ‌and David Gregorio)

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