Canada-based Ensign Energy Services has been working in Venezuela for 25 years and has never left the country, where rig counts have plummeted, and the political and regulatory landscape has been a minefield to navigate.
“We’re the only Canadian company — the only oilfield service drilling company — operating in Venezuela,” Bob Geddes, Ensign Energy Services’ president and chief operating officer, told the Financial Post in an interview.
“We’ve stuck through Venezuela, thick and thin, and here we are with a little bit of blue sky ahead,” the executive noted.
The comments come as the Trump Administration this week further eased the sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry by allowing U.S. firms to provide services and technology for oil and gas exploration and production in the South American country that holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves.
The general license of the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) notes that U.S. entities or persons are now authorized to provide “goods, technology, software, or services for the exploration, development, or production of oil or gas in Venezuela” under certain limited conditions.
While the license will mark a widely expected return of services giants such as Halliburton and SLB, the Calgary-based Ensign Energy Services will have a head start in the race for Venezuela’s drilling opportunities.
Ensign is reportedly working for Chevron, currently the only U.S. exploration and production company authorized to operate in Venezuela.
In its latest earnings release in November, Ensign said that “As part of the Company’s international operations, it provides oilfield services in Venezuela pursuant to contractual arrangements, which have recently been reactivated.”
As of November, Ensign had one rig that restarted in Venezuela and expected a second rig to be added by the end of 2025.
It flagged as a credit risk a net accounts receivable balance of about $4.2 million for work performed in Venezuela. Ensign has a history of collecting payments it is owed, but noted in November that “due to the continuing political unrest in the country as well as imposed sanctions there can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in collecting all of such accounts receivable outstanding.”
The situation in Venezuela has drastically changed since November 2025, with the U.S. ousting Nicolas Maduro, taking over control of the country’s oil sales, and urging American companies to invest billions of U.S. dollars to revive the struggling Venezuelan oil industry and fix severely outdated or damaged energy infrastructure.
Working in Venezuela is “not for the faint-hearted,” Ensign’s Geddes told the Financial Post.
It is not clear how soon companies could return to the country or how much money they would be willing to spend, especially until reforms in the industry and the political and security backdrop guarantee oil firms and drillers would not have to flee Venezuela in a few years again.
Services provider Ensign could soon be joined by the giants Halliburton and SLB, who have already expressed interest in returning to Venezuela operations.
Halliburton CEO Jeff Miller told analysts on the Q4 earnings call in January that he is “confident that we could move fairly quickly in Venezuela.”
“We’re working through the mechanics around license and things that we’re certain will get in place,” Miller said last month.
SLB’s chief executive, Olivier Le Peuch, said on the earnings call at the end of January that the oilfield services giant remains “confident that with appropriate licensing, safety parameters, and compliance measures in place, we can rapidly ramp up activities in support of the oil and gas industry in Venezuela.”
“We are excited and we are already receiving a lot of inquiries from our customers,” Le Peuch added.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com