Energy industry executives have warned that despite efforts by both the Donald Trump administration and Venezuela to boost oil production, the country is struggling to revive its dilapidated oil sector due to a lack of sufficient skilled workers. Venezuela has experienced a massive brain drain. Industry executives say that domestic salaries are only a fraction of comparable positions overseas, making it unlikely to attract thousands of departed oil industry professionals back home. Meanwhile, Venezuelan universities are not producing enough petroleum engineers to meet industry demand. Although Venezuela holds the world's largest proven oil reserves, its daily oil production has fallen from over 3 million barrels at the beginning of this century to less than 500,000 barrels in 2020. Mismanagement, corruption, and subsequently imposed US sanctions are the main reasons for the decline. Today, Venezuela's daily oil output hovers around 1 million barrels. Since January of this year, Venezuela has introduced a series of reform measures and reached multiple oil agreements aimed at further increasing production.
Alejandro Teran, president of the Texas Latin American Oil Entrepreneurs Association and a prominent figure in Venezuela's oil industry, said: "The problem is that if we want to raise daily production to 3 million barrels, we must find a way to attract some of those who have left to come back, while also training new employees." He added: "Currently there is a severe shortage of personnel, especially in mid- and lower-level technical positions, and these are precisely the people who are actually responsible for production operations." During the administrations of Maduro and Chavez, approximately 8 million Venezuelans emigrated overseas, including a large number of oil industry professionals. Many of them settled in Colombia, Canada, and the United States, providing talent support for these countries' booming oil industries. Teran estimates that there are currently 4,800 Venezuelan oil and gas engineers in the United States, with another 2,500 working in welding jobs in Israel's oil and gas industry. A Venezuelan petroleum engineer currently working in Suriname's rapidly growing energy sector said that although he hopes to return to his homeland one day, current conditions are not sufficient to attract him back. The overseas professional said: "For a family that has already lived abroad for 15 years and has been working at another oil company, there are no guarantees whatsoever in returning home. The salary levels simply do not reflect reality."
According to Teran, the base salary for engineers at Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is approximately $200 per month, while private companies operating in Venezuela pay engineers around $2,000 to $3,000 per month. By comparison, Venezuelans working in the US oil and gas industry earn an average monthly salary of approximately $5,000. Venezuelan management consultant Guayalberto Bello, who has decades of experience in the oil industry, said: "When people are starving, passion alone cannot sustain them. If you don't pay salaries at international levels, they won't come back." Bello also said that retraining workers from other industries or using technologies like artificial intelligence to improve production efficiency cannot compensate for the human capital gap in the oil sector. Bello said: "Packing and moving beer crates and transporting crude oil under high-pressure conditions are two completely different things. Operating this industry doesn't require artificial intelligence; it requires people who can carry out inspections, maintenance, pipeline laying, and welding work."
In August of this year, Washington and Caracas announced an unusual agreement granting North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) 100-year concessions on 17 oil fields. NABEP is Venezuela's second-largest private oil producer. The US Department of Defense will hold a 35% stake in its parent company, which is controlled by one of Venezuela's most controversial business figures, Alejandro Betancourt. An executive responsible for NABEP's recruitment insisted that the company has seen "a significant increase in applications from highly qualified job seekers," and said that "some of them have already set off for Venezuela to join the company, including Venezuelan expatriates who are returning to their homeland." Several international oil majors, including BP, Repsol, and Eni, have also announced plans to expand their operations in Venezuela. US oil giant Chevron, which has operated in Venezuela for over a century, said in September that it would double its local oil production through a $7 billion expansion plan. A Chevron official in Venezuela said the company is in a more advantageous position compared to other operators because it never left Venezuela. However, he also acknowledged that the company faces difficulties in recruiting skilled technical workers, especially welders. Chevron has established vocational training schools to develop relevant workers. The official said: "We can't just talk about geologists and geophysicists. We equally need skilled workers, such as welders, electricians, and construction professionals."
Other industry insiders say that slow visa processing also makes it more difficult to recruit employees from overseas. Oil services executive Carlos Borges said that in Zulia state in western Venezuela, which was once the core area of the country's oil industry, there is now "not much human resources left." Meanwhile, according to Julio Molina, dean of the engineering faculty at the Central University of Venezuela, the country's largest university, of the 52 engineers who graduated last month, only 4 specialized in petroleum engineering. Molina said that enrollment in petroleum engineering is increasing, with 125 students currently studying the subject. But he added: "In the short term, we won't have many petroleum engineers." As early as 2002 to 2003, Venezuela's oil industry experienced a wave of brain drain. At that time, Chavez fired 19,000 PDVSA employees. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado ended nearly 10 months of exile on Sunday and returned to Venezuela. Machado said: "We need engineers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, and teachers to return to their homeland."
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