The acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, signed a memorandum of understanding on Saturday with the French oil company TotalEnergies for strategic cooperation in hydrocarbons, according to a report by Reuters from Caracas.
The agreement was signed by Héctor Obregón on behalf of PDVSA and by Francisco Javier Rielo, Senior Vice President of TotalEnergies for the Americas. Details regarding the operational scope, economic value, the oil fields involved, and the execution timeline were not disclosed.
The agreement marks a significant turnaround for the French company, which had completely withdrawn from Venezuela in 2022 after relinquishing its stake in the heavy oil project Petrocedeño and selling its natural gas assets. By the end of that year, TotalEnergies no longer had a presence in the country.
The company's own CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, stated in January of this year that returning to Venezuela "was not high on his agenda" and that the company "wasn't in a hurry," further warning that reactivating production to up to one million barrels per day would require around 100 billion dollars.
The memorandum arrives at a time of easing tensions between Paris and Caracas. In early 2025, the government of Nicolás Maduro had restricted the presence of France, the Netherlands, and Italy in Caracas to three diplomats, citing "hostile conduct."
France responded by ordering Venezuela to reduce its diplomatic staff in Paris within five days. The crisis originated from the French and European rejection of Maduro's appointment for a third term. The agreement with TotalEnergies therefore marks a bilateral economic normalization following that period of friction.
The agreement with the French oil company is the most recent in a series of deals that Rodríguez's government has signed with multinational companies since Maduro was captured by U.S. military forces in January.
The Trump administration immediately launched a strategy to reactivate the sector: summoned executives from Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Repsol to the White House to coordinate the reconstruction of the Venezuelan industry and mobilize up to 100 billion dollars in investment.
At the end of August, Trump announced what he referred to as "the largest oil agreement in history", which includes 17 fields, reserves of 65 billion barrels, and a 100-year concession with a 35% stake for the United States.
The U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright traveled to Caracas in early September to advance those commitments, and Venezuela participated days later in the G20 energy ministerial meeting held in Houston.
The diplomatic context intensifies this week: the White House confirmed a meeting between Trump and Delcy Rodríguez on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, scheduled for Tuesday, which would mark the first in-person meeting between a U.S. president and a Venezuelan leader in over 11 years.
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