Machado Wants Venezuela's Oil-and-Gas Sector to Go 'Fully Private' -- WSJ

By Ryan Dezember

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado received a rousing standing ovation during her appearance at a major energy and mining conference in Houston on Tuesday evening, where she promised gathered executives a fully privatized energy industry in the oil-rich South American country.

Though she remains in exile after escaping Venezuela by boat late last year, the face of what many consider the country's legitimate government made big promises to the global oil industry, including 25-year contracts, a 20% cap on royalties, dispute resolution by international courts and ownership of oil and gas output at the wellhead.

"The Venezuelan state will get out of the way and pave the way to give the conditions so that the oil-and-gas sector in Venezuela will go fully private," she said at S&P Global's CERAWeek conference.

The role of the state will be "strictly as a regulator," she said, which would be a significant departure from the nationalized industry that has mismanaged the country's trove of oil and gas for two decades and been used to funnel cash to the oppressive regime of deposed strongman Nicolás Maduro.

"For the first time in Venezuela's history, we will have long-term and clear rules," Machado said.

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March 24, 2026 19:20 ET (23:20 GMT)

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