Eni signs 25-year contract to exclusively operate the Junín 5 oilfield

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 2, Eni and Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) signed the Hydrocarbon Production Participation Contract (Contrato de Participación Productiva de Hidrocarburos, CPPH) for the Junín 5 oilfield in Caracas. The contract has a term of 25 years, with an option for extension. Under the contract arrangements, Eni has been granted the status of exclusive operator of the Junín 5 block, responsible for the project's technical, financial, and commercial management. Junín 5 is located in the onshore area of Venezuela's Orinoco Oil Belt and is classified as a heavy oil field.

This contract completes the operating model transition initiated by both parties in April this year. On April 28, Eni, Venezuela's Ministry of Hydrocarbons, and PDVSA had already signed a preliminary agreement to resume oil operations at Junín 5, which at the time was still operating under the Petrojunín joint venture model, with PDVSA holding a 60% stake and Eni holding 40%. Following the signing of the CPPH in September, the project has moved to the contractual mechanism established under Venezuela's new Organic Law of Hydrocarbons, approved in January 2026, with Eni further securing exclusive operational rights to the block from its previous position as a joint venture participant.

According to Eni data, Junín 5 holds approximately 35 billion barrels of certified original oil in place, with current crude production of around 12,000 barrels per day. In its 2026 Capital Markets Update, Eni further listed the field's recoverable resources at approximately 2 billion barrels and plans to gradually develop Junín 5 to a plateau production of around 180,000 barrels per day, equivalent to 15 times current output. The aforementioned 180,000 barrels per day is a planned plateau production level and does not represent immediate incremental production following the signing of this contract.

Under Eni's upstream development portfolio in Venezuela announced this year, Junín 5 has been included alongside the Perla gas field and the Corocoro oilfield as part of its core local oil and gas assets. Among these, Corocoro currently produces around 10,000 barrels per day, with plans to increase to 30,000 barrels per day; Junín 5 is Eni's largest planned production growth project in Venezuela. Eni's equity oil and gas production in Venezuela in 2025 was approximately 64,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, with its current local output primarily coming from the Perla gas field.

The signing for Junín 5 also comes during the project transition phase following the adjustment of Venezuela's oil and gas contract framework. The Venezuelan government confirmed on September 2 that Junín 5 has completed its operating model transition and signed the production participation contract; the same batch of energy agreements also includes adjustments of certain existing joint venture oilfields to the framework of the new Organic Law of Hydrocarbons.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) updated General License No. 50C related to Venezuela on August 27, listing Eni as one of six companies authorized to conduct transactions related to Venezuela's oil and gas operations, while also covering qualifying transactions involving the Venezuelan government, PDVSA, and their controlled entities. The license requires that dispute resolution procedures for related contracts take place in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, or Singapore; certain payments to sanctioned parties, as well as oil and gas taxes, fees, and royalties, must be deposited into designated accounts in accordance with the license provisions, and related transactions are also subject to reporting requirements within 10 days of the initial transaction and every 90 days thereafter.