Eni signs a strategic contract in Venezuela and becomes the operator of the massive Junin-5 field

A key move on the global energy supply map and a crucial piece in the Latin American geopolitical chess game. Eni has signed a strategic agreement in Caracas with the state-owned company PDVSA to take on the role of exclusive operator for the development of the Junín-5 heavy oil superfield, located in the resource-rich Orinoco Belt. The political and geopolitical significance of the deal is underlined by the large contingent of senior officials present at the signing, starting with the CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, who signed the agreement with his PDVSA counterpart, Héctor Obregón, in the presence of Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez, the Minister for Hydrocarbons Paula Henao and the US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, whose participation underscores the renewed centrality of the Venezuelan issue in Washington’s energy landscape following the agreement announced in recent days by US President Donald Trump.

The agreement takes the form of a ‘Contrato de Participación Productiva de Hidrocarburos’ (CPPH) with a term of 25 years (extendable), the new legal framework introduced by the reform of the Organic Law on Hydrocarbons approved by the Caracas Assembly. The contract marks the definitive move away from the old “empresa mixta” model Petrojunín, under which Eni held a 40 per cent stake and PDVSA 60 per cent, and assigns to the group led by Descalzi full and direct responsibility for the technical, financial and commercial management of a giant field with proven reserves of 35 billion barrels in place.

Junín-5 currently produces around 12,000 barrels a day, but the new management will aim to accelerate and streamline the ramp-up phase in order to reach 400,000 barrels of daily production by the end of the decade, with an investment of around 1.5 billion dollars a year to be borne by the joint venture. However, taking into account all the group’s oil production, Eni would be able to reach 1 million barrels per day in the long term, according to market sources. The agreement formalises the head of terms signed at the end of April. For Eni, this represents a further step towards industrial consolidation in Venezuela, where the group has been active since 1998 and has never abandoned its local presence, even during periods of greatest geopolitical tension.

“This agreement represents a new cornerstone for the revitalisation of the country’s oil andgas sector in the country, at a time when energy security based on abundant resources and diversification is vital for global stability,” said Claudio Descalzi, emphasising that Eni’s operational stability will enable the extraction and development of resources that are crucial for both domestic consumption and foreign markets. “Being granted operatorship of a key area such as Junin-5 is recognition of our ability to deliver complex projects quickly and efficiently, and it reinforces our long-standing presence in the country, which we have never abandoned, continuing to supply energy to the local population even during the most difficult times.”

In addition to the impact on the oil sector, the move regarding Junin-5 – where Eni has been operating since 2010 and which is separate from the agreement signed by the US administration – reaffirms San Donato’s central role in the region’s energy mix. In 2025, Eni recorded production in Venezuela of around 64,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. This output was primarily underpinned by the other major pillar of the company’s operations in the country: the Perla gas field (within the Cardón IV offshore licence, in a 50-50 joint venture with the Spanish company Repsol), which covers around 35 per cent of Venezuela’s natural gas requirements. It is precisely for Cardón IV that a Sustainability Agreement was recently signed, aimed at increasing volumes for the domestic market and laying the foundations for future volumes to be allocated for export. Rounding off the scope of the group’s Italian operations are a 26 per cent stake in the Corocoro offshore field (through the company PetroSucre) and a stake in the petrochemical firm Supermetanol. With direct control over Junín-5, the Italian group is thus at the forefront of the process of reopening and streamlining Venezuela’s upstream sector for international markets.