UPDATE 2-Venezuelan oil minister tells Houston conference country is open to foreign dispute resolution

Venezuelan Oil Minister ‌Paula ​Henao said on Tuesday that the country's new hydrocarbons rules allow for dispute resolution outside the country, a key demand of many foreign oil companies before stepping up activity in the South American country.

"On the issue of legal certainty, which I know many of you are looking for, the law incorporates all ‌of that through dispute resolution mechanisms, not only within our national territory, but it also allows and opens the door for other venues to be used to resolve any disputes that may arise," she said at a conference outside Houston. "We trust that it won't come to that, but in the event that any difficulty does arise, we can resolve it through that channel." Her remarks at the event, hosted by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in ‌The Woodlands, Texas, marked the first visit to the U.S. by a senior oil official from the South American country since President Nicolas Maduro was ousted in January by American military forces. Since then, U.S. President ‌Donald Trump has promoted an ambitious plan to restore the country's oil sector with $100 billion in new investments while authorities in Venezuela rewrite rules to facilitate the effort under the government led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez.

The 63-page regulation must still be published in the Official Gazette to take effect, but a draft version shows the legislation will end decades of monopoly control by state oil company PDVSA and allow private companies to obtain licenses for heavy crude oil processing, refining and international trading. Venezuela is "very eager and confident" about ⁠the return ​of foreign investors to the country's energy sector, Henao added. She ⁠did not take any questions from the audience.

PRIVATE MEETINGS IN HOUSTON Henao was named oil minister in March by Rodriguez, who previously held the post. She arrived in Houston on Sunday evening, according to event organizers, and is holding private meetings with oil companies ⁠including service firms and drillers, according to a source. She was seen meeting with Amos Global Energy CEO Ali Moshiri on the sidelines of the event and has also met with technology firms as PDVSA continues to recover systems from a ​cyberattack. In recent weeks, she has told investors and service providers who want to help increase production that Venezuela needs pumps, frequency converters, wellheads, valves, pipelines, gas compressors and chemicals for drilling, producing, processing and ⁠transporting crude and gas.

PDVSA Executive Vice President Jovanny Martinez also spoke at the Tuesday event and urged foreign companies to invest in Venezuela's natural gas sector, saying the country held 192 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves and had passed new legislation designed to attract private ⁠capital. "Every ​agreement we sign, we will honor," he said. He told journalists that a final version of a new oil contract model and associated legislation that companies are waiting to negotiate with PDVSA will be released soon.

Officials from Spanish oil major Repsol and France's Maurel & Prom also gave presentations at the conference, with the latter company's subsurface development manager Julien Van Lint saying that drilling at the Urdaneta West block is ⁠expected to be restarted next year. "Venezuela plays an incredibly important role in strengthening energy security in the Western Hemisphere," U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Kyle Haustveit said at the conference on Monday, recounting a recent ⁠visit to the country's Orinoco oil belt region.

"For too ⁠long, I think we've segregated our countries in the Western Hemisphere by the type of energy they produce: the U.S. shale, Canadian heavy oil, offshore Brazil, Venezuela's heavy oil," he said. "But if we zoom out, we look at strengthening the Western Hemisphere, we have all the resources, the people, the infrastructure, the refining capacity ‌to make the Western Hemisphere strong in ‌the Americas, strong with energy security, strong with allies."

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