Baker Hughes sees a significant revenue opportunity for Venezuela

Baker Hughes, an oilfield services company, said on Monday that there are significant revenue opportunities in Venezuela. The main considerations when operating there were safety, conditions for employees and clarity of legal and regulatory frameworks. The Houston-headquartered company has been working with authorities on Venezuela after the U.S. earlier this month removed President Nicolas Maduro from ?power and called on oil companies to rebuild the South American country's dilapidated oil industry.

The company said that it has maintained a 'continuous presence in Venezuela to support licensed oil producers in their activities. Lorenzo Simonelli said, "We are taking a long-term, prudent view, as we continue to assess?opportunities, and also the activities we have in the marketplace," during an earnings call. Simonelli stated that moderate production increases in Venezuela would require substantial investments in well integrity, power generation off-grid, equipment replacements, upgrades, and services.

"WORK IN PROGRESS"

Simonelli stated that "the incremental revenue opportunity is significant and will be evidently programmatic as we return, and there is a lot of progress to be made." SLB, a rival?services firm, said last week that it could rapidly expand its activities in Venezuela if the appropriate licensing, safety criteria and compliance measures were in place. Halliburton announced earlier that they would be seeking to enter Venezuela as soon as the commercial and legal terms are settled, including payment security. Baker?Hughes reported a 11% increase in adjusted profit in the fourth quarter of this year on Sunday. The company forecast revenue for 2026 between $26.2 billion to $28.3 million, which is below the $27.7-billion revenue from last year.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization will range between $4.6 and $5.2 billion by 2025, up from $4.8 billion. Reporting by Arathy Saha and Sumit Sha in Bengaluru. Editing by Nathan Crooks.

(source: Reuters)