Photo Credit EIN News
Drawing on their experience in Venezuela, banking, investment, and legal specialists outlined the conditions that could make new oil and gas projects financeable at the Reinvest: Making Venezuelan Oil Bankable panel discussion at VIOGS 2026 (Venezuelan International Oil and Gas Summit), held on September 29, 2026, in Caracas.
The importance of new frameworks
Ramón Andrade1, Partner at Ponte, Andrade and Casanova2, a Caracas-based law firm specializing in the oil and gas industry, said that a legally robust project is not automatically bankable in Venezuela. “On the one hand, you have the new hydrocarbons framework, approved last May, which determines how those rights are granted. On the other hand, you have the sanctions framework, which determines who can work,” Andrade said.
Andrade said he asks clients a set of practical due diligence questions: “What authorization do you have? Do you have the right to operate and sell? Which Venezuelan approvals are in place? What happens if the regulations, economics, or sanctions change? What remedies do lenders have if something goes wrong?” These questions determine whether a project gives lenders enforceable rights, reliable revenue, and workable remedies under changing conditions, he said.
“What we are likely to see are finances that are asset-specific,” asserted Andrade. We are to see sponsor equity at risk, and we are going to see perhaps the first financing with projects where there's near-term production with independent reporting and hard currency revenue under the lender.”
A compliance framework is required
Andrés Martínez Gaggioni3, Managing Director of ArtCapital Strategies4, an international investment firm based in Bogotá, said Venezuela’s oil and gas recovery will require different sources of capital. “Corporate loans may not be available for several months or even a year. Project finance could offer another route because sovereign debt remains unstructured, while cheap capital may not be available for a decade or more,” he said.
“We are building new credit models because the industry has diminished so sharply in recent years that traditional lending models no longer fit,” Martínez said. “Many local companies do not have historical financial statements that investors can rely on.”
Martínez advised companies seeking international investment to make projects easy to evaluate. Investors must be able to analyze a proposal, reach a decision, monitor performance, and compare the opportunity with alternatives in other markets. He added that corporate loans are unlikely to become a meaningful financing option in the next few months.
The most immediately bankable opportunities are likely to be short- to medium-term brownfield capital expenditures and working-capital loans secured by equipment, the specialist said.
The local banking potential
Miguel Mariano Freyre5 and Ricardo Concha6 offered perspectives from two leading Venezuelan banks. Freyre is Vice President of Corporate, Institutional, and Private Banking at Banesco Banco Universal7, while Concha is Head of Oil, gas, and petrochemicals at Mercantil Banco Universal8.
“An industry (oil and gas) that has been so diminished in the last few years made us more creative. We couldn't use traditional lending models”, recalled the Banesco VP.
“But now the local banking system has a key role in providing a very agile reinvigoration from the operating standpoint (…) after a few years of recapitalization, we are now in a better situation to be able to provide”, said Mr. Freyre. “We will also provide international companies with the ability to successfully deploy capital on a domestic level and provide a compliance framework that allows international capital to be able to successfully and safely operate in the country.
“You saw the industry, a lot of them Venezuelans, with a lot of grit, ready to act”, asserted Mr. Concha. You see an industry that needs all the transactional services we can provide. They need to manage dollars as much as bolivares [the Venezuelan national currency], as well as finance structuring for some of the things that they're thinking”.
Both specialists have a positive outlook on the mid-term future: “I think (Venezuela) is progressing in the right direction in terms of production, expanding the monetary system, stabilizing the economy by getting more stable inflation rates. The banks and the financial system are going to be able to recuperate some of the normal practices that happen abroad,” remarked Mr. Freyre.
See the full panel discussion at https://www.youtube.com/live/BfZkU91Ieg0?si=Ls79gCq-XeO_yumj&t=727
1 Ramón Andrade. Go to Site
2 Ponte, Andrade and Casanova. Go to Site
3 Andrés Martinez Gaggioni. Go to Site
4 ArtCapital Strategies. Go to Site
5 Miguel Mariano Freyre. Go to Site
6 Ricardo Concha. Go to Site
7 Banesco Banco Universal. Go to Site
8 Mercantil Banco Universal. Go to Site
