Venezuela's PDVSA Signs Oilfield Data Services Contract with SLB

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On August 20, the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela confirmed that SLB and Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA have signed a service framework agreement aimed at modernizing oil and gas exploration and production through advanced technology and data tools. Three people close to the negotiations said the contract grants SLB access to PDVSA's oilfield data, allowing it to organize and upgrade long-fragmented, aging data resources. William Antonio, SLB's business director for Mexico, Central America, and Venezuela, said work began immediately after the contract was signed.

The contract's scope of work covers data management ranging from reservoir characterization to real-time crude oil production. The three people said SLB will participate in the digitalization and integration of PDVSA's geological, reservoir, and production databases, and may introduce technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve data management; the collaboration also involves technology transfer and personnel training. The full technical scope of the contract has not yet been disclosed.

Repairing data systems has become a key component of this contract. After PDVSA suffered a ransomware attack late last year, multiple applications, including email and contract management software, were affected. The three people said PDVSA has since restored some major applications, but geological and production databases still need to be migrated to new systems, and data lost from damaged servers must be rebuilt based on paper records.

Prior to this services contract, SLB announced on June 10 a long-term cooperation framework memorandum with PDVSA covering exploration, field development, production, digitalization, and personnel training. At that time, both parties proposed evaluating the application of connected data, predictive models, and AI workflows in oil and gas production, and listed mature field production optimization and heavy and extra-heavy crude resource development as potential areas of cooperation. This data services contract moves the previously identified digitalization cooperation into the specific execution phase.

The contract value, duration, and final payment mechanism have not been disclosed. The three people close to the negotiations said that payment in kind, such as crude oil, was discussed during negotiations. The U.S. Treasury Department's current Venezuela licensing framework permits eligible U.S. entities to provide certain software, technology, and services related to local oil and gas exploration, development, and production, while imposing corresponding conditions on transactions involving PDVSA.

Venezuela's Ministry of Petroleum last published an annual oil statistics bulletin in 2015; since then, apart from limited monthly production data provided to OPEC, systematic data on oilfields, refining, and exports has been lacking for an extended period. Meanwhile, SLB's business activities in Venezuela have also begun to extend into field operations: company management stated on August 19 that it is advancing the restart of up to 15 existing rigs locally, with up to 4 planned to resume operations by the end of this year, subject to the finalization of relevant contracts.