{"id":179900,"date":"2026-02-16T07:50:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T07:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/179900\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T07:50:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T07:50:40","slug":"venezuelas-oil-industry-is-in-ruins-reviving-it-wont-be-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/179900\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela’s oil industry is in ruins. Reviving it won’t be easy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CABIMAS, Venezuela \u00a0\u2014\u00a0The pumps that brought prosperity from deep in the Earth\u2019s crust are now mostly rusted relics of a storied past. <\/p>\n

The buildings that housed a prideful labor force are vandalized, colonized by squatters or boarded up. <\/p>\n

The schools, clinics, the manicured golf course \u2014 onetime amenities from an industry awash in petrodollars \u2014 gone or overgrown with weeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur biggest problem is depression and anxiety,\u201d says Manuel Polanco, 74, a former petroleum engineer whose recollections of the good times only highlight a dystopian present. \u201cWe barely survive. We have just enough to feed ourselves, to get by.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the dismal tableau today in Venezuela\u2019s Maracaibo Basin, which, for much of the last century, was one of the globe\u2019s leading sources of petroleum.<\/p>\n

\"Monument <\/p>\n

A monument to oil workers stands in a square in Cabimas, a once-thriving oil town in Venezuela. <\/p>\n

(Marcelo P\u00e9rez del Carpio\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

Since the U.S. attack last month and arrest of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, President Trump has vowed to rebuild the country\u2019s moribund oil sector \u2014 while also providing resources and cash for the United States. East of Maracaibo lies the Orinoco Belt, home to the world\u2019s largest proven deposits, estimated at more than 300 billion barrels. <\/p>\n

But a recent swing through the Maracaibo region in northwestern Venezuela dramatized the many obstacles. Greeting visitors is a dire panorama of nonfunctioning wells, battered pipelines and empty storage tanks, among other markers of decline.<\/p>\n

The U.S. plans have generated considerable skepticism in a place not accustomed to good news. But some oil-field veterans envision a return to the glory days. <\/p>\n

\u201cI see myself flourishing again,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Celestino Garc\u00eda Petro, 66 and a father of eight, who said he never found steady work after his well-servicing firm was expropriated by the government years ago. \u201cRising from the ashes!\u201d <\/p>\n

\"deteriorated <\/p>\n

Deteriorated oil rigs and gas flow stations are seen on Lake Maracaibo, near the city of Cabimas. <\/p>\n

At its peak in the 1970s, Venezuela was daily pumping some 3.5 million barrels<\/a>. A charter member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the nation exuded affluence and excess \u2014 though the wealth was mostly channeled to domestic elites and foreign oil companies, not the impoverished majority.<\/p>\n

But slumping crude prices, government mismanagement and U.S. sanctions have left Venezuela\u2019s industry a hollowed-out shell of its former, grandiose self. <\/p>\n

Last year, Venezuela managed to pump about 1 million barrels a day, less than 1% of global production. Even so, petroleum was still a lifeline for a nation mired in more than a decade of economic, political and social tumult <\/a>marked by mass emigration, hyperinflation and a near-ubiquitous sense of despair. <\/p>\n

\"Venezuelan <\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, left, and Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez hold a news conference after their meeting at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas on Feb. 11. <\/p>\n

(Julio Urribarri \/ Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited Venezuela last week, met with the country\u2019s interim president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, and even toured some oil fields. He boasted of \u201cenormous progress\u201d in reviving a business that is now effectively under U.S. management.<\/p>\n

Dimming the upbeat declarations is a harsh reality: It will likely take at least a decade \u2014 and perhaps $200 billion or more \u2014 to restore the country\u2019s decrepit hydrocarbon infrastructure, experts say. <\/p>\n

A lot depends on Big Oil, but some executives are wary. At a White House meeting last month, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods labeled Venezuela \u201cuninvestable<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along the oil-streaked shores of Lake Maracaibo \u2014 actually a massive coastal lagoon, fed by both freshwater rivers and the Caribbean \u2014 the vestiges of a once-thriving enterprise stand out like totems from a past civilization.<\/p>\n

Dotting the shoreline is a bleak expanse of detritus: timeworn pumps, tottering derricks, wayward cranes and aging pipelines. Gobs of oil mar the coast. Pollution has ravaged once-abundant stocks of fish and crab.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pray to God every day that things will change for the better,\u201d said Joel Jos\u00e9 Le\u00f3n Santo, 53, who on a recent morning was preparing his fishing boat with three colleagues. \u201cBut so far we haven\u2019t seen any improvements. Food is more expensive. Tomorrow\u2019s meal depends on today\u2019s catch.\u201d<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

1. Much of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry is in disrepair, like this broken oil pipeline over Lake Maracaibo. 2. The General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge spans an outlet of Lake Maracaibo and links the region with the rest of Venezuela. <\/p>\n

There is no official number, but industry observers estimate that fewer than 2,000 wells are functioning in a region that is home to some 12,000. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything here is bad, at a standstill,\u201d said Mari Camacho, 45, who, with her family, is among those squatting in a series of abandoned homes in the town of El G\u00fcere, flanked by mangroves along the eastern shores of Lake Maracaibo.<\/p>\n

A brick factory that once served oil producers shuttered long ago. Her four sons left for Colombia, part of the country\u2019s historic exodus.<\/p>\n

Her home sits atop a sea of oil, but Camacho says there has been no electricity for six years, since a transformer blew out. No one fixed it. Alarming her and neighbors are rumors that the legal owners of their homes plan to claim their property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where I would go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

About 10 miles south is the sweltering city of Cabimas, an iconic venue in Venezuela\u2019s petroleum narrative. It is now a ramshackle, seemingly lost-in-time metropolis where residents sit on porches observing the unsteady progress of cars navigating pothole-ridden streets. <\/p>\n

\"Lake <\/p>\n

People stand near a sign reading \u201cMaracaibo\u201d at a park on the shore of Lake Maracaibo. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll the great companies that used to exist were connected to the petroleum industry,\u201d said Hollister Quintero, 32, a Cabimas native whose grandparents worked for foreign oil firms during the industry\u2019s heady days. \u201cNow, there is just desolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quintero, who lacked the funds to finish college, struggles as a freelance audiovisual producer. He also cares for his aging parents, whose public pensions amount to the equivalent of $2 a month.<\/p>\n

Most young people leave town, Quintero said, while those who stay find jobs in the informal sector. A common, albeit not very lucrative, option: delivering food orders on bicycles or motorcycles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere just aren\u2019t many opportunities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"a <\/p>\n

A mural in Maracaibo celebrates Venezuela\u2019s oil industry. <\/p>\n

For centuries, Lake Maracaibo\u2019s environs were known for natural seepage of oil rising to the surface from sedimentary rock, a phenomenon also seen in sites like Los Angeles\u2019 La Brea Tar Pits. Indigenous people and Spanish settlers utilized the viscous goo for medicinal purposes and waterproofing boats.<\/p>\n

But the dawn of the oil age in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries and the allure of black gold attracted a new crowd: wildcatters and fortune-hunters from the United States and Europe, drawn to a backwater heretofore known for coffee, cacao and cattle.<\/p>\n

It was here in Cabimas where, more than a century ago, a well-named Barroso II jump-started a boom. <\/p>\n

On Dec. 14, 1922, the ground shook in Cabimas, but it wasn\u2019t an earthquake. Barroso II, managed by Royal Dutch Shell, began spitting skyward some 100,000 barrels daily. <\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly, with a roar, oil erupted from the well in a spout that towered 200 feet above the derrick and fanned out in the air like a titan\u2019s umbrella,\u201d Orlando M\u00e9ndez, a Venezuelan oil historian, wrote in a 2022 article<\/a> for the American Assn. of Petroleum Geologists, marking the blowout\u2019s centennial. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe villagers poured out of their houses,\u201d M\u00e9ndez wrote. \u201cOil sprayed them in a torrent of black raindrops. … Only the bravest walked hesitantly toward the well. They held out their hands and the dark, sticky fluid splattered [on] their palms. \u2018\u00a1Petr\u00f3leo!\u2019 they all shouted.\u201d <\/p>\n

The gusher didn\u2019t relent for nine days. <\/p>\n

The runaway well ushered in a bonanza. Little attention was paid to the environmental catastrophe for Lake Maracaibo, destination of much of the escaping crude. <\/p>\n

\"a <\/p>\n

The Petr\u00f3leos de Venezuela Bajo Grande Refinery on the shore of Lake Maracaibo. <\/p>\n

Explorers scouring the lakeside soon discovered other, even more productive fields. By the end of the 1920s, Venezuela had become the world\u2019s largest oil exporter. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaracaibo was alive with eager strangers as every boat that landed there disgorged an army of oil workers,\u201d M\u00e9ndez wrote.<\/p>\n

In subsequent decades, Venezuela rode a boom-and-bust cycle, but by the late-1990s returned to producing near-record levels of 3 million barrels a day.<\/p>\n

With revenues soaring, the late President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, a left-wing populist, lavished cash on Venezuelan masses long excluded from the petroleum windfall. An opposition-backed general strike in 2002-03 prompted Ch\u00e1vez to fire almost 20,000 employees of the state oil firm. <\/p>\n

Years later, Ch\u00e1vez nationalized dozens of oil companies, including some U.S. firms. The expropriations, along with the firings, consolidated state control of the oil sector and, experts say, drained the country of expertise and investment, inflicting lasting damage. <\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez died in 2013. International oil prices soon cratered \u2014 bad news for his chosen successor, Maduro. U.S. sanctions enacted during Trump\u2019s first term exacerbated the crisis. Most fired oil workers never got their jobs back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were stigmatized, our benefits were taken away, and we were denied the opportunity to work in Venezuela,\u201d said Polanco, the petroleum engineer.<\/p>\n

\"an <\/p>\n

An anti-U.S. mural in Maracaibo declares, \u201cVenezuela is not a menace, Venezuela is hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his dismissal, Polanco said he found employment in Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, but later returned to Cabimas. He has one son in the United States, another in Mexico. <\/p>\n

He and other former oil workers expressed guarded optimism for Trump\u2019s ambitious revival blueprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to return to the oil industry and have it be the same as it was 22 years ago,\u201d said Michelle Bello, 51, a father of five who said he and four siblings were forced out from the state oil company during the purge. \u201cTake politics out of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Quintero, the young entrepreneur, also welcomes the notion that his hometown may return to its renowned era of affluence. But he is skeptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I hope that Cabimas could be reborn anew as a petroleum center,\u201d said Quintero. \u201cThis is a place with a lot of history and culture. But the sad fact is this: We are now a ghost town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Special correspondent Mogoll\u00f3n reported from Cabimas and Times staff writer McDonnell from Mexico City. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CABIMAS, Venezuela \u00a0\u2014\u00a0The pumps that brought prosperity from deep in the Earth\u2019s crust are now mostly rusted relics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[31658,7832,85378,7363,85379,85380,1073,48,52,51,7036,47,50,49,85377,64278,85381,3020,435,9298,10525],"class_list":{"0":"post-179900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-barrel","9":"tag-big-oil","10":"tag-cabimas","11":"tag-country","12":"tag-glory-day","13":"tag-hollister-quintero","14":"tag-home","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-la-headlines","17":"tag-la-news","18":"tag-last-year","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-maracaibo","23":"tag-oil-industry","24":"tag-orlando-mendez","25":"tag-president-trump","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-venezuela","28":"tag-well"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}