On Friday, over 20 senior executives from the world’s largest oil companies appeared at the White House, representing a vast array of firms beyond the traditional seven sisters of the past. Their purpose was to hear President Donald Trump’s proposal following his self-appointed role as the gatekeeper for Venezuelan oil after capturing Nicolás Maduro: to orchestrate the takeover and control of the Venezuelan oil industry for the exploration and commercialization of its hydrocarbons.
“We are going to discuss how these large U.S. companies can help quickly rebuild the deteriorated oil industry in Venezuela and deliver millions of barrels of production to benefit the United States, the Venezuelan people, and the world,” said the U.S. leader, subtly reminding them he was in charge: “We will see who we are going to let in.” However, neither this warning nor the promise of potential Washington subsidies for the operations swayed the initial hesitancy from the companies, particularly ExxonMobil, along with the expected exceptions of Chevron and Spain’s Repsol, which are already in business in Venezuela. Low oil prices and the political-legal instability in Caracas do not inspire investment.
Earlier, Trump had stated on his Truth Social account that the guardianship authorities of Chavismo, now under the leadership of the newly appointed President Delcy Rodríguez, committed to granting access to “between 30 and 50 million” barrels of oil currently lying beneath Venezuela, a country with the largest proven reserves in the world (although much of these reserves consist of extra-heavy crude, which is difficult to extract and process). In light of this, Trump requested over $100 billion in investments from oil companies for the recovery of the once-thriving Venezuelan industry, devastated after twenty-five years of disinvestment, lack of maintenance, and being used as the regime’s cash cow.
This promise would conflict with another commitment that Delcy Rodríguez, in her role as Minister of Oil, made back in 2024. At that time, she envisioned and executed a series of reprivatizations in the oil sector aimed at attracting new investors. She utilized a novel legal framework called the Productive Participation Contracts (CPP), which ensured private companies a more advantageous and profitable relationship than what was offered under Hugo Chávez’s earlier mixed-ownership model.
The campaign ended up being a complete free-for-all. Various areas of the Orinoco Oil Belt and the Maracaibo Lake basin were assigned to private, mostly unknown companies with more appetite than experience in the field. Many of these firms were owned by political and business associates of both the regime and Delcy Rodríguez herself.
In previous editions, Armando.info has reported how some of these concessions went to corporate fronts for the U.S. magnate Harry Sargeant III, in collaboration with the well-known “bolichico,” Alejandro Betancourt; or a businessman connected with former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s circle, who has been advising Delcy Rodríguez on economic matters for years through two of his former ministers.
However, these contracts are not the only ones that have recently been brought into question by the dramatic U.S. military intervention and, importantly, Trump’s aim to manage the oil business in Venezuela moving forward with companies back on the ground. Besides the contracts involving Sargent-Betancourt and the Ecuadorians, Rodríguez granted CPPs to another 14 firms, which are now surfacing as indirect casualties of the January 3 Absolute Resolve Operation.
Chinese Tales
On August 12, 2025, Pdvsa’s president, Héctor Obregón, confirmed to Hainan Breey Energy Co. Ltd that their CPP would “go into effect” starting September 1, after verifying that the company met requirements such as “proof of funds,” a “work plan,” and “technical capabilities,” among other criteria.
The CPP signed allowed Hainan Breey Energy to explore the Dobokubi field in the Orinoco Oil Belt. Obregón’s letter to Jiang Fucal identified him as the company’s “legal representative.” However, according to internal sources in the oil industry, the trail of Hainan Breey Energy Co. Ltd actually leads back to Panamanian businessman Ramón Carretero Napolitano, whom U.S. authorities tie to Carlos Malpica Flores, nephew of Cilia Flores, and other family members of the First Lady, also known as the First Comrade in Chavista jargon. While Cilia Flores was also captured by U.S. troops early on January 3 and taken to New York, where she now faces trial, Carretero Napolitano himself was targeted days earlier by a sanction from the Treasury Department.
In September of last year, when Hainan Breey Energy started its operations, the Dobokubi field was producing 33,000 barrels of oil daily and according to Pdvsa’s goals, production was to rise to 38,000 barrels per day by the end of December.
Prior to receiving the license to exploit the Dobokubi field, Hainan Breey Energy had already established itself as a primary service provider for Pdvsa in northern Monagas state, on the eastern part of the country. There, they undertook “well testing,” “continuous piping,” “fine wire,” and “perforation,” among other services, as confirmed by documents obtained for this report. The company does not have a website.
In early December 2025, workers from another CPP recipient, Vulcan Energy Technology, based in Anzoátegui, gathered at a club to celebrate a successful year, having secured the contract to exploit the Cariña field in the Orinoco Oil Belt.
Originally established in Sheung Wang, one of the original settlements of Hong Kong, Vulcan Energy Technology Limited opened its Venezuelan office in October 2024. Hou Yunfu, the company’s representative for Venezuela, and Norberto Apolinar Yibirín, an attorney specializing in “intellectual property of brands, patents of scientific inventions, and copyright,” as stated in his Instagram profile, registered the main office of the company under the name Vulcan Energy Technology Venezolana, C.A., in El Rosal, once the financial golden mile of Caracas. Like Hainan Breey Energy, Vulcan started as a provider of “investment and financing services for projects and developments, consultancy, maintenance, installation, and purchase and sale of supplies for the oil industry,” as noted in their files, before being awarded a CPP.
Despite lacking proven experience in the Venezuelan oil sector, Vulcan managed to stand out with its performance. According to documents from Pdvsa reviewed by Armando.info, of the total production by companies holding CPPs—around 227,000 barrels in September 2025—Vulcan produced just over 5% in the previous year, far outpaced by Nabep, Sargeant’s firm, which holds 32% of that production.
Another CPP recipient is China Concord Petroleum Co. Limited (CCPC), which has been under U.S. sanctions since September 2019 for “knowingly participating in a significant transaction for transporting oil from Iran.” CCPC was assigned the Lagunillas Lake field, part of the traditional oil-rich basin of Lake Maracaibo.
Although it is a private company, it has partnered with Kunlun Holding, a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Its owners, as noted in the sanctions imposed by the OFAC, are Bin Xu, Yi Li, Yu Hua Mao, Luqian Shen, and Yazhou Xu.
An industry source, consulted by Armando.info last May, specified that the agreement with Pdvsa awarded 50% of profits to this Chinese company, with the additional benefit that the Venezuelan state, through Pdvsa, would cover technology adaptation costs. This same source indicated that the project has excluded all worker and union participation in decision-making.
Upon entering Lagocinco, another field in Zulia state also assigned through the CPP, China Concord Petroleum Co. Limited aimed to triple production from the current 50,000 barrels per day to 150,000. “The Chinese will have control upstream [in production] and downstream [in marketing]. They are repairing pumps and equipment. In marketing, they have everything in place for filling stations and service stations,” the source informed at the time, speaking on the condition of anonymity. They added a surprising detail: the CPP is indefinite. This duration could be lifetime but may come to an abrupt end if Trump’s takeover materializes.
However, according to sources in the oil industry, China Concord’s operation in Venezuela is a front for Alex Saab Morán, the current Minister of Industries, who inherited Maduro’s cabinet and was once the preferred contractor of the imprisoned president. In the past, during Tareck El Aissami’s tenure as Minister of Oil, Saab, along with his partner Álvaro Pulido, participated in the irregular commercialization of Venezuelan oil, which led to significant financial losses for the state-owned oil company and served as a catalyst for the corruption scandal known as Pdvsa-Crypto, resulting in a purge in the upper echelons of Chavismo.
Recently, The New York Times revealed that Saab is involved in oil shipments aboard tankers attempting to bypass the naval blockade imposed by the U.S. against the so-called ghost fleet serving sanctioned countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela itself. The U.S. outlet reported that the Barranquilla trader had chartered a vessel that returned to Venezuelan ports at the request of the very authorities of Delcy Rodríguez’s administration, with U.S. military support, since it had set sail from Venezuela without authorization.
Another company to have profited from Delcy Rodríguez’s allocations is Conbest Group, C.A., established in Caracas in October 2024. By December that year, a mere two months after its formation, it was already registered and qualified in the National Contractor Registry (RNC). Just a year later, it received a CPP to work in the Ayacucho 1 field of the Orinoco Oil Belt.
On paper, its owners are again two Chinese citizens: Yuxiang Du and Yuchi Cen. The latter is the more public-facing figure in the business. On his LinkedIn profile, he presents himself as an executive with ten years of experience in the development, distribution, exploitation, and extraction of oil, claiming to have “25 years in labor social relations.”
In any case, what his experience does cover are previous dealings with the Chavista state. My Eyes Construcciones Group, Vacen Global Marketing Limited, C.A. (both formed in 2013), and Evacen Petrochemical Supplies, C.A. (from 2016) are all registered in the Venezuelan RNC. In fact, according to a 2020 Pdvsa document, the latter was viewed as a “new possible investment” for the state oil company. That company, Evacen, topped a list of 20 firms that signed confidentiality agreements ahead of potential concessions. The mentioned document detailed that Evacen was to be granted, by the now-defunct presidential commission Alí Rodríguez (dissolved by Maduro in March 2023), the Ayacucho 1, Yopales Norte, Budare, Cachicamo, Caricari, and Socororo fields.
All companies represented by Yuchi Cen share the same address, an office in the Los Naranjos Commercial Gallery in El Hatillo municipality, southeast Caracas.
Home Turf Players
Another company awarded blocks in the Orinoco Oil Belt through CPPs is Cavallino Oil Company. The sole owner, with 100% of the shares, is Carlos Enrique Abreu Bello, a 48-year-old Venezuelan. Although founded in 2018, the company did not have any activity until last year when it showed consecutive increases in capital, modified its purpose, and registered, on January 15, 2025, in the RNC as a state supplier.
This sudden change in the company’s documents occurred just before being assigned to operate the Bare field in the Orinoco Oil Belt. According to records from the RNC, in just one year, Cavallino Oil Company transitioned from merely being a service provider for drilling, maintenance, and flow supervision of oil wells in Venezuela to becoming an actual producer. Cavallino Oil Company’s crude production accounts for 3.8% of the total production covered by the CPPs.
Abreu Bello’s history as an oil entrepreneur dates back to 2018 with the founding of Well Services Cavallino, also a state contractor and a partner with Pdvsa in Roraima Servicios Petroleros, registered in Monagas, like Cavallino Oil. In the RNC, Roraima reflects very limited experience, with only two small contracts for transportation and moving with the state-owned oil company.
Armando.info gained access to several documents showing that Abreu Bello’s Well Services Cavallino has conducted “coil tubing” work for the state oil company, a process involving the introduction of flexible pipes for oil well maintenance. The reviewed documents also show that these services were subcontracted to Pdvsa by the company Oryx Resources, whose owner was Samark López Bello, identified as a front for the former Executive Vice President of the Republic and ex-Pdvsa president, Tareck El Aissami. Both El Aissami and López fell out of favor with the self-proclaimed Bolivarian Revolution in 2023, accused and arrested for corruption.
One of the blocks in the Orinoco Oil Belt is the Ayacucho block—alongside Junín, Boyacá, and Carabobo—which, due to its vast reserves, is among the most coveted. Divided into several sub-blocks, number 6 was awarded via a CPP to West Construcciones, a company from Zulia state.
This stands out as one of the most striking CPP assignments because, although West Construcciones was founded in 2001, its overall and particularly state contracting history relates to construction and infrastructure works and not oil exploitation or services.
According to RNC records consulted for this work, West Construcciones has been contracted by several entities of the Executive Branch—such as the Mayors of Maracaibo and San Francisco in Zulia, and the Ministries of Housing and Habitat and Interior and Justice, for instance— and the closest it had come to Pdvsa before receiving the concession was when it handled at least five jobs for the adjustment and construction of cafeterias, mainly at refining plants between 2020 and 2021.
The company has branches in Falcón and Anzoátegui, and its owner is Juan Pablo Fereira Rosillo, brother of Joan Manuel Fereira Rosillo, a well-known state contractor in Venezuela. The latter’s name has appeared among the casts of some shady cases, such as the infamous pyramid scheme known as La Vuelta, which occurred in Zulia state in 2012. Also, the Swiss Prosecutor’s Office identified him as the ultimate beneficiary of Rote Energy, which received $2.2 million from Brazilian civil engineering firm Odebrecht for the incomplete multimillion-dollar Tocoma dam project in Bolívar state, southeastern Venezuela.
Speaking of Brazil: another company awarded a CPP last year is the Alvorada & Cladoca Consortium, an association of Brazilian Consorcio Alvorada and Venezuelan Inversiones Cladoca. The latter was formed in Monagas state and stands out from most of its peers for its lengthy track record of executed works and services provided to the oil industry.
Inversiones Alvorada & Cladoca, registered in June 2024, is also the only CPP-holding company that explicitly mentions in its corporate objectives its commitment to oil production: it conducts “jointly and collectively, the search and attainment of business opportunities related to oil activities, including the achievement of the mentioned ASH or CPP,” as stated in its incorporation document. Since last year, it has exploited the CPP Boca-Güico–Guara, which covers a good portion of southern Anzoátegui state, and while it meets its entire production quota, this only accounts for 1.2% of the overall barrels produced by companies holding CPPs.
According to its activities reflected in the RNC, the Venezuelan Inversiones Cladoca has a history of working in the oil sector not only for Pdvsa (out of 166 contracts registered in the RNC, at least 80% were contracts for oil works and services awarded by the state-owned oil company) but also for foreign firms like Exxon Mobil and Halliburton in drilling since 2003.
Between Opaque and Ghosts
In general, companies awarded CPPs have been very cautious in keeping their relationship with Pdvsa out of the public eye. Some, perhaps by design, have common names that are hard to research. Such is the case of Servicios y Mantenimientos Orinoco Oil C.A. -in global registers, there are dozens of firms with the name Orinoco Oil-, which operates with a CPP in the Arecuna field, south of El Tigre, Anzoátegui state.
Founded in 2013 precisely in El Tigre, Orinoco Oil’s fiscal object is broad: ranging from exploiting activities typical of construction to obtaining contracts and subcontracts for all types of civil works to the “transportation of solid materials derived from petroleum, chemical fluid transport, and the disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste to sites authorized by the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources and by Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.” The company is composed of a president, Ramón David Martínez Sung, and a vice president, Antnoly Coromoto Basabe Añez.
A state contractor at least since 2016, Orinoco Oil, C.A., maintained offices at Pdvsa’s headquarters in San Tomé, Anzoátegui. With that broad catalog summarized above, it signed up in the RNC, until in 2025, according to documents from the Venezuelan state oil company accessed by Armando.info, it secured the most lucrative contract in its history through the very CPP it is now handling.
Among the web of CPP-awarded firms, some shift from opacity to deliberately ethereal, like Asiática del Caribe Energy, C.A. With a website that still appears to be under construction and where interaction is limited to sending messages, it has no presence in the RNC. Asiática del Caribe is assigned to the Dación field, located in the Orinoco Oil Belt, and by the end of last year, it had produced 2.8% of the total barrels from CPP-awarded companies.
An even fainter trail was found in coverage by Armando.info of Proven Reserves Limited, which also has no address, registration, known email, or phone contact. Nor does it have a website. The only evidence of the existence of this company is in Pdvsa documents reviewed for this work, indicating that Proven Reserves was tasked with the CPP Río Caribe, in the Paria Peninsula of Sucre state, northeastern Venezuela, from which it has not managed to extract a single barrel. For now, it remains just a promise, like other CPP allocations, which are at risk due to the expected arrival of oil companies, both American and from other countries, called by Donald Trump.
