--- title: "U.S. Oil Deal With Venezuela Raises Hopes Around a Lake Polluted by Spills" description: "A 100-year concession promises to revive output near Lake Maracaibo, where fishermen say the oil has gutted their catches" author: "rews desk" published: 2026-10-04T05:00:00Z modified: 2026-10-04T18:08:33Z url: https://rews.cc/a/u-s-oil-deal-with-venezuela-raises-hopes-around-a-lake-pollu-fe8ba1 language: en tags: ["oil", "venezuela", "environment", "health", "infrastructure", "world"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # U.S. Oil Deal With Venezuela Raises Hopes Around a Lake Polluted by Spills *A 100-year concession promises to revive output near Lake Maracaibo, where fishermen say the oil has gutted their catches* By rews desk · October 4, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/u-s-oil-deal-with-venezuela-raises-hopes-around-a-lake-pollu-fe8ba1 ## In brief - The U.S. signed an oil deal with Venezuela’s interim authorities in late August, covering 17 fields around the country - Private company North American Blue Energy Partners received a 100-year concession and pledged to double production in two years - Venezuela holds an estimated 303 billion barrels of reserves but produces about 1 percent of global supply - More than 80 oil spills were counted in Venezuela in 2022, the last year with available data, most near Lake Maracaibo - Neither government has included a lake cleanup in the deal; residents and a local group are demanding one The United States signed a sweeping oil deal with Venezuela’s interim authorities in late August, granting a private company a 100-year concession over 17 oil fields and a promise to double production in two years. Around Lake Maracaibo, where many of those fields lie, residents say the revival is welcome, but their first demand is simpler: clean up the lake. Jessica Partida, 42, needs a $30 ultrasound for her kidneys and cannot afford it. Her husband, Enrique Olivares, fishes the lake, and oil in the water has kept him from catching the shrimp he uses as bait. “I left the hospital because my husband hasn’t been able to fish because of the oil,” she told CBC News. The family of six lives in Cabimas, about 500 kilometers west of Caracas, on the shore of one of the country’s largest oil-producing regions. A Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary first struck oil here just over a century ago, and the lake — technically an estuary — stood for decades as a symbol of Venezuela’s oil wealth. Today the water is dotted with rusting rigs and pumpjacks, most of them idle, some leaking oil and gas. Venezuela holds the largest proven oil reserves in the world, an estimated 303 billion barrels, yet accounts for only about 1 percent of global supply. Output has fallen by roughly two-thirds since the early 2000s. The decline began under President Hugo Chávez, when the state oil company PDVSA fired around 18,000 skilled workers after a 2002-03 strike and revenue was diverted from maintenance. U.S. sanctions imposed in 2017 and 2019 compounded the decay. “We don’t feel the oil wealth,” Ms. Partida said. “We don’t sell the oil, we don’t do anything with it. It just sits there, going to waste.” The fishermen say the oil drifts with wind and current, often toward them in the early afternoon, just when they would head out to collect shrimp for bait. “When we throw our nets, they become covered in oil, and if the nets get damaged, we have nothing to work with,” said Gregory Díaz, 36, who has fished the lake for 20 years. Mr. Olivares said the oil companies once cleaned the shore and PDVSA replaced damaged nets. “They haven’t done that in years,” he said. Official spill data is outdated. The Observatory of Political Ecology of Venezuela counted more than 80 oil spills in 2022, the most recent year available, most of them in the west near the lake. Residents say the spills never stopped and describe dozens of large ones each year. From his boat, Carlos Rodríguez steered a CBC reporter toward a pumpjack leaking gas and dripping crude, with a heavy smell of gas drifting for meters around it. “This one just exploded a few weeks ago,” he said. The oil leaves a black slime on everything that touches the water. Many say the constant smell and contact have affected their health. “There are people who suffer from asthma and it chokes them,” Mr. Rodríguez said. “Most have left because the oil chokes them so much and they would rather live somewhere else.” Ms. Partida put it more plainly: “The kids go swimming and come out stained with oil.” No cleanup has been scheduled. Neither the U.S. nor Venezuelan authorities have mentioned one in connection with the deal, and past promises have come to nothing — most recently in 2023, when the Environmental Ministry pledged a “national team” to clean 600 beaches along the lake. The government’s communications ministry did not respond to CBC’s request for comment. One local group, Azul Ambientalistas, has demanded that 5 percent of revenue from new output go toward cleaning the water. Some residents say a company recently came through the neighborhood collecting names, phone numbers and addresses in case jobs open up. Mr. Olivares is on the list. No one has called, and he said the deal has brought no economic change so far. Mr. Díaz, who has daughters ages five and seven, estimates his catches have fallen 40 percent in recent years. “Here we depend on fishing. If we catch something, we eat. If we don’t, we don’t have money,” he said. A job on land, he said, “could change your life.” For Ms. Partida, the ultrasound will wait until the family’s situation improves. She said she believes the new oil money will be felt. “I believe it, but sometimes I have doubts, because time passes and there are still gas leaks and oil spills,” she said.