On Saturday, 17 October 2026, Delcy Rodríguez, who presents herself as Venezuela's acting president, closed the Energy, Oil and Gas Conference in Zulia state with a figure: nearly 76 billion dollars of oil and gas investment over the next five years. Reuters reported the remark the next day. The money is not yet in the ground; it is a projection tied to signed agreements and others still under negotiation.

Rodríguez spoke of 61 agreements already signed and another 44 in talks. The bilateral package with the United States, she said, covers 17 fields and 250 drilling rigs, each needing about 200 workers. Over ten years, she added, the deals could create 324,000 jobs, direct, indirect and induced. The estimate is hers; it is not a headcount of hires.

On Zulia, she said output had risen from 70,000 to 370,000 barrels a day and that the year-end target was 400,000. She did not say over what period the jump from 70,000 took place. Reuters noted that gap explicitly.

The political context is contested. Reuters recalls the ouster of Nicolás Maduro in January and the reopening of the energy sector with backing from the Trump administration. This article reports what Rodríguez said at the conference; it does not recognise a constitutional status.

Venezuela holds the world's largest proven crude reserves and has for years produced well below the level of a decade ago, after underinvestment, operational problems at PDVSA and US sanctions. The contracts, Rodríguez said, provide for local capital and Venezuelan workers, plus a technical table with the industry and the oil chambers.

Anyone who reads 76 billion as a transfer already made confuses a conference with a balance sheet. Anyone who dismisses it as empty talk still ignores an energy-policy signal. Both extremes mis-scale the event: this is an announced target, not newly measured output.

Image: Wilfredor, PDVSA 5 de Julio building, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive building, not the Zulia conference on 17 October 2026.

Sources consulted: Venezuela expects nearly 76 billion in oil investment over five years - Reuters / Yahoo Finance; Venezuela expects nearly 76 billion in oil investment - Reuters / Investing.com.