Caracas Chronicles

Everyone knows Venezuela’s energy industry is one hot mess, and one big part of the problem is opacity.

Anyone who works on these issues knows the frustration. Trying to pry information out of PDVSA is hopeless. Data that’s made public as a matter of course everywhere else is treated like a state secret in Venezuela.

As we dive into a third quarter full of PDVSA debt maturities, there’s virtually no public information on what the company is doing to avoid default, or how it would respond if it can’t. Nothing.

Whether the information you’re looking for is operational, commercial, strategic or financial, one thing’s for sure: PDVSA just won’t say.

The list of secrets is long and the list of lies is longer.

When PDVSA Finance chief Simón Zerpa flies off to China for weeks on end to try to negotiate some kind of financing deal, nobody reports it. When Nicolás Maduro ambushes the head of Chevron for Latin America at what was supposed to be a private meeting, nobody reports the backstory.

(But, of course, we know.)

Then again, finding out stuff that’s hard to find out is what Caracas Chronicles is all about, isn’t it?

Which got us thinking…what if we put together a report, deeply sourced, that works out Venezuela’s energy puzzle in detail?

That’s what the Venezuela Energy Briefing is all about.

Twice a month, a specialized team of Venezuelan oil experts goes through an unparalleled set of insider sources to put the Venezuela Energy Briefing together. If you need to understand industry trends in detail, catch developing stories even before they break and really look deep into the Venezuelan energy sector, this briefing is for you.

To book a private consultation to discuss your information needs on the Venezuelan energy sector, click here.