TotalEnergies signs memorandum with Venezuela for operations return

TotalEnergies is heading back to Venezuela. The French energy major signed a memorandum of understanding with PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, on September 19, laying the groundwork for a return to the country’s hydrocarbon operations after a half-decade absence. The ceremony took place at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, overseen by acting President Delcy Rodríguez. PDVSA President Héctor Obregón and TotalEnergies Senior Vice President for the Americas, Francisco Javier Rielo, put pen to paper on a deal focused on “strategic cooperation in hydrocarbons.” From writedown to write-back TotalEnergies exited Venezuela’s upstream operations in 2021, taking a $1.4 billion writedown in the process. The landscape has shifted considerably since Maduro’s ouster in January 2026. Venezuela’s post-Maduro government has been aggressively courting the international energy firms that once fled, passing reforms to the country’s Organic Hydrocarbons Law designed to sweeten the deal for foreign capital. The revised legal framework gives international companies expanded operational roles, a critical change from the rigid state-control model that defined the Maduro era. TotalEnergies had been i...