Letter from the Editor-in-Chief (Summer 2026)
One of the more shocking world events of 2026, which has had a direct impact on the oil and gas industry, was the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces on January 3, 2026. Nearly seven months later, Venezuela remains in the headlines and is the focus of this issue’s cover feature.
With an estimated 303 billion barrels of crude oil, Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It is also one of the founding members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which was created in 1960, and controls approximately 80 percent of the world’s proven crude oil reserves. As Venezuela holds 17 to 18 percent of those reserves, its significance to the global energy markets cannot be overstated.
While Venezuela once produced as much as three million barrels of oil per day, it plunged to a low in 2020 of less than 500,000/bpd after decades of neglect, mismanagement, and corruption. After Maduro’s ouster and the U.S. effectively taking control of the country’s petroleum sector, production rose to over one million/bpd, according to OPEC and other sources, with U.S. federal government import statistics reporting approximately half of that arrives daily at U.S. refineries in Texas and along the Gulf Coast.
Venezuela’s role on the world stage – and within the international energy industry – is one that will continue to unfold for the foreseeable future.
As someone born and raised in Venezuela and a former general manager at the state-owned national oil and gas company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (known as PDVSA), Maria Angela Capello, now president of Red Tree Consulting in Houston, Texas, shares an insider’s view of the current situation and, in exclusive written comments to Energies Media, gives an update in the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes (magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5), which caused major devastation in the northern part of the country on June 24, 2026. While the oil and gas industry was largely unaffected by the natural disaster, the humanitarian toll is catastrophic.
Venezuela’s role on the world stage – and within the international energy industry – is one that will continue to unfold for the foreseeable future.
Rebecca Ponton is the magazine editor at Energies Media and author of Breaking the Gas Ceiling: Women in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry. She is the publisher of Books & Recovery digital magazine.
