5. Venezuela: Petroleum Industry and Regulation

The Venezuelan hydrocarbons industry has been affected, during the last two decades, by multiple political, social, economic, technical, legal and even dogmatic factors which have compromised its performance and productiveness, including the decline of its level of crude-oil production from 3.1 MMBD to just above 480 MBD. One of the Venezuelan petroleum industry’s main legal problems is the excessive control and regulation by the State, which has not only been used—in a dogmatic manner—as an instrument of political and social manipulation, but also as a tool to influence investments which are considered contrary to the interests of the ‘ideological’ plans of the government of the day. In the present paper, the author identifies and reflects on how the excessive State’s control and regulation and the lack of professional and opportune decision-making in the Venezuelan hydrocarbons industry have affected the maintenance, the stabilisation and the development of said sector and, therefore, the legal certainty and stability requested by the investors. The author concludes that the petroleum history should use the learned lessons from the past and apply them to avoid repeating the political, social, economic, technical, legal and dogmatic consequences.