Primavera, a natural resources company based in Houston and Caracas, is preparing to take over oil field operations in Venezuela. The company has hired former senior executives from Occidental and Chevron and will manage these fields under agreements signed on September 2 with the Venezuelan Ministry of Hydrocarbons and the state-owned oil company PDVSA at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.
New Senior Executives
Oscar Quintero, who previously headed Occidental's EOR division in Houston, has been appointed as the head of Primavera's operational team in Venezuela. He has worked at Occidental in various conventional and unconventional asset areas, including the Permian Basin. Prior to that, Quintero worked at Shell and Hess, gaining experience in drilling operations and large fields in Russia, Indonesia, India, and the United States. As a Venezuelan, he returns to his homeland with his family. Manuel Iribarren, one of the founders of Primavera, noted that Quintero and others return with the hope of helping to build a bright future for a country that deserves it.
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Growth and Development Priorities
Primavera has also hired three other managers who previously worked in Chevron's Venezuela leadership team: Mario Gandara as Chief Commercial Officer, Jorge Castro as Senior Vice President of Finance and Commercial Management, and Yvette Lopez as Vice President of Legal and Compliance. Dheeraj Verma, one of the founders, stated that very few private companies currently possess this level of international operational experience and managerial talent. The company's priority is rapid growth in the short term: "We are looking to rapidly increase production in collaboration with PDVSA and create hundreds of new jobs in Venezuela and Texas."
Primavera has announced its intention to rapidly expand crude oil development and will announce progress milestones in the coming months. However, it has not yet disclosed which fields it will manage or specified production targets.
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