NABEP Adds 20,000 bpd in Venezuela Since August, Set to Double Rigs

North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) has raised output in Venezuela by about 20,000 barrels per day since August, reaching roughly 223,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of mid-October, according to a source with knowledge of the company's operations who spoke to Bloomberg on Friday.

The privately held company, named by the White House in August as one of the U.S. Administration's partners in what it called "the biggest oil deal in world history," now plans to double its active rig count. NABEP currently runs three drilling rigs in the Junin area of the Orinoco Oil Belt. Three more rigs will soon be activated, one of which has already arrived in Venezuela, the source said.

What does the rig expansion change?

For operators watching the Faja del Orinoco, the near-term signal is incremental, not transformational. Adding three rigs takes NABEP's active fleet to six — a working-scale increase, but still far short of the build-out the company says it envisions. Its 25-year plan calls for bringing a total of 60 rigs into Venezuela, plus 70 pieces of heavy construction equipment. Production, on the company's own framing, would eventually rise tenfold.

NABEP says it is looking "to rapidly expand its operations in Lake Maracaibo and the Orinoco Belt with the near-term goal of increasing production to more than 1 million barrels of oil per day." That near-term goal, if reached, would place the company's output among the largest single-operator volumes in the country.

The takeaway for now: three extra rigs are sanctioned work on the ground, while the 60-rig programme and the 1-million-bpd target remain company plans without published financing detail.

How large is the underlying deal?

The framework NABEP operates under is unusually large by any measure. As much as $100 billion in investment could be involved in new oil infrastructure after the interim Venezuelan authorities granted the company 100-year concessions for 17 oilfields with proven reserves of approximately 65 billion barrels.

Those concessions, covering acreage in two of the country's most established producing regions, are the asset base behind the expansion. The 17-field portfolio and its 65 billion barrels of proven reserves give NABEP one of the largest reserve positions ever assigned to a single private company in Venezuela.

Is the money actually there?

That is the open question, and NABEP has not closed it. The closely held company has released few details about how it is financing operations. Rystad Energy addressed the point directly in September: "NABEP's $100 billion figure represents a long-term funding requirement, not committed near-term capital, and the company has not disclosed a detailed financing structure."

For practitioners, the distinction matters. Committed capital drives rig contracts, service tenders and offtake schedules; a long-term funding requirement does not. The 20,000 bpd of added output since August and the sixth rig arriving in-country are verifiable operational facts. The $100 billion figure is a stated ambition that Rystad characterises as unfunded in the near term.

The takeaway: physical operations are accelerating on a modest base, while the financing behind the headline investment number remains undisclosed.

Who is behind the company?

NABEP is led by Venezuela-born businessman Alejandro Betancourt. The company was announced by the White House in August as a partner in the U.S. Administration's push to boost Venezuelan oil production.

Beyond the leadership and the concession terms, the company has published little on ownership structure or funding sources, which keeps analyst reliance on operational reporting — such as rig movements and output figures from sources on the ground — rather than company disclosures.

The watch item is the pace of rig activation and whether output continues to climb toward the 1-million-bpd near-term goal on disclosed financing.