Venezuela will soon issue rules meant to provide energy investorswith more clarity, hydrocarbons minister Paula Henao said on Tuesday.
The national assembly passed a hydrocarbons law reform earlier this year aimed at opening the sector to investment, but it lacks the moredetailed regulations needed to implement many changes.
"In coming days, we should publish the regulations … to make all these reforms operational," Henao told a Venezuela E&P conference organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists near Houston, Texas.
The national assembly will need to publish the regulations in the official gazette for them to take effect. Several different draft versions have circulated among market participants in Venezuela.
Key questions remain over how companies will qualify for lower royalty rates, whether Venezuela will submit to international arbitration in case of disputes, and specifics on contract models, market participants said.
Henao assured participants that contracts under the new framework would include international arbitration, although the oil reform does not exclude a domestic resolution process for disputes.
Henao's visit is one of the first in-person appearances in the US by a Venezuelan oil minister in at least 10 years, based on an Argus estimate. The US seizure of Venezuela's former leader Nicolas Maduro on 3 January and what has essentially become a takeover of its energy exports has renewed investment discussions between the countries.
Venezuela still aims to increase its crude production to 1.37mn b/d by December, up from the 1.2mn b/d reported for April.
