European Oil Majors Struggle to Recover About $6 Billion from Venezuela

Eni SpA and Repsol SA are grappling with attempts to collect around $6 billion owed in connection with gas supplies and related transactions with Venezuelan entities, according to industry accounts of the matter. The disputed sums are linked to production from Venezuela’s Perla offshore gas field and to supplies of naphtha and gas used to dilute the country’s heavy crude, commercial arrangements that have long underpinned foreign involvement in the sector.

The underlying contracts are said to be routed through local operating structures, including the joint venture known as Cardón IV, reported to be a 50-50 collaboration between Eni and Repsol. Historically, one means of settling obligations between PDVSA, Venezuela’s state oil company, and international partners has been oil swaps, where crude shipments or refined products are exchanged against outstanding debts. Those mechanisms have been complicated by U.S. regulatory moves that in March 2025 told one European partner it could no longer accept repayment in the form of oil supplied by PDVSA, and warned that authorisations that previously facilitated certain Venezuelan oil exports could be revoked.

Industry participants familiar with the situation say that Eni and Repsol have encountered what they describe as indifference from U.S. officials when seeking assistance to press or enforce the claims. The practical result is a narrowing of commercially viable settlement routes at a time when the Venezuelan state remains cash-strapped and subject to a web of sanctions and export controls that affect how and where assets can be exchanged or seized.

Eni, Repsol and the U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the outstanding balances or the nature of their ongoing recovery efforts. Venezuelan authorities and PDVSA have not publicly confirmed the figure, and there is no detailed public breakdown of the $6 billion by contract, timeframe or individual invoices. It is also unclear whether the European firms have initiated formal arbitration or litigation to recover the sums.

The episode underlines the difficult interface between commercial law, international sanctions regimes and geopolitics. Recovering debts from a state entity like PDVSA typically runs through arbitration clauses, domestic courts or political negotiation, but each avenue is rendered more complex when the debtor is subject to sanctions and the settlement currency may be energy in transit. There is also a geopolitical dimension: other U.S. majors operating in Venezuela have pursued different arrangements, illustrating uneven outcomes for foreign partners and adding pressure on European firms to weigh legal remedies against operational access.

For policy makers and investors, the immediate questions are whether authorisations limiting oil-for-debt settlements will be clarified or reversed, whether Eni and Repsol will seek arbitration, and what precedents any recovery or write-off will set for future investment in Venezuela. The resolution of this dispute will be watched closely in Rome and Madrid, in Washington and Caracas, as it will shape the commercial calculus for foreign energy companies engaging with sanctioned or politically sensitive oil-producing states.