Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol, two of the largest European energy companies, are struggling to recover about $6 billion from Venezuela for the gas and naphtha they have supplied to the South American country, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
Eni and Repsol jointly own the Perla gas field offshore Venezuela. For years, the two European oil and gas majors had supplied gas and naphtha to Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA, to use as diluents to make the extra heavy crude easier to transport.
In exchange, PDVSA was paying to Eni and Repsol with crude.
However, the Trump Administration in March 2025 ended the licenses of all foreign firms to operate in Venezuela as the United States renewed its pressure on the country holding about 17% of the world’s proven oil reserves.
Eni and Repsol, and all others foreign firms, including oilfield services operators and U.S. supermajor Chevron, had their licenses yanked, before the Trump Administration exempted Chevron and allowed it in July to operate in Venezuela and export the crude oil to the United States.
The European majors are not authorized to return to Venezuela, yet.
Barred from receiving crude from PDVSA for nearly a year, Eni and Repsol are now looking to recoup $6 billion worth of the gas they had supplied to Venezuela.
Apart from struggling to recoup the value of the deliveries, the European firms have also faced indifference from the U.S. Administration regarding efforts to recover the debt owed, according to FT’s sources.
Meanwhile, billions of barrels of Venezuela’s oil claimed by major energy companies under current deals are now in doubt following the capture of Nicolas Maduro, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.
China’s Sinopec and CNPC, Russia’s Roszarubezhneft, Chevron, Eni, and Repsol, among others, have about 10 billion of barrels of reserves in Venezuela under current agreements.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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