'We have great capability and potential to offer Venezuela’
Some Canadian oil and gas professionals and firms are quietly positioning themselves for possible work in Venezuela’s battered energy sector, even as concerns about political instability, legal protections and worker safety keep many employers cautious.
Interest has surged since U.S. forces attacked and seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, according to a report by CBC News. The intervention and discussion in Washington about rebuilding the country’s oil industry have triggered a wave of inquiries from Alberta‑based workers with international experience.
Calgary oilpatch veteran Barry Blacklock told CBC his phone “began buzzing” the night the news broke, as former colleagues and contacts sought information about potential openings. Blacklock—who spent 17 years living and working in Venezuela’s energy sector before returning to Canada in 2009—said that since then he has dealt with “50, 60 different WhatsApp messages, emails, phone calls from people.”
In 2025, energy giant ConocoPhillips announced sweeping workforce reductions of up to 25% of its global staff.
Canadian companies eye equipment, service roles
Blacklock is now helping to co‑ordinate a group of companies interested in supplying equipment and services if conditions allow. He previously organised a similar effort in 2019 when regime change appeared possible but did not occur, CBC reported.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, estimated at about 303 billion barrels. Yet its oilfields and surface facilities have deteriorated sharply after years of under‑investment, state control and mismanagement.
“A lot of the oilfields have been neglected. They’re not producing,” Blacklock told CBC. “The equipment, the wellheads, the pumps — a lot of the equipment on the surface has been stolen or just allowed to deteriorate so it has no value. It will all have to be replaced.”
Those conditions could create substantial demand for foreign service providers and technical staff. Alberta‑based companies in particular have decades of experience handling heavy oil similar to Venezuela’s. “In Canada, we have a great capability and potential to offer Venezuela in bringing all of those technologies … which have advanced significantly over the last few decades that Venezuela has missed,” consultant Amit Mankekar said in the report.
In early 2025, the Academy of Learning in Alberta started setting up a recruitment and training office in Caracas to help employers find foreign tradesworkers and make them job-ready, targeting the pool of 18,000 Venezuelan oil workers who were laid off from the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in 2002.
‘Uninvestable’ risk?
Venezuela continues to face U.S. sanctions, future U.S. policy is uncertain, and the country’s legal and regulatory framework has long been considered unpredictable by investors.
U.S. President Donald Trump recently met nearly 20 executives from major global oil companies at the White House and pressed for at least US$100 billion in spending to revive production in Venezuela. No Canadian firms were invited to that session, says the CBC. Several U.S. executives expressed caution, citing past asset seizures and contract risk.
“We have had our assets seized there twice, and so you can imagine to re‑enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen and what is currently the state,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said at the White House, according to CBC. “Today, it’s uninvestable.”
In 2023, 28 charges were laid against 2 employers in relation to the death of 25-year-old oilsands worker Patrick Poitras.
