Venezuela Takes Its Africa Energy Partnership to Cape Town for African Energy Week (AEW) 2026

Venezuela will send an official government delegation to African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 in Cape Town, bringing senior figures from its Ministry of People’s Power for Hydrocarbons and its national university for oil and gas education to the continent’s premier energy event. The delegation includes Ricardo Gómez, Vice Minister of Commercial Policy; Celia Bejarano, Rector of the Universidad Venezolana de los Hidrocarburos (UVH); and Carlos Espinoza, a professional advisor in the Ministry’s petroleum division. The delegation’s participation marks the latest step in an Africa-Venezuela energy partnership that has gathered momentum throughout 2026.

In February, the African Energy Chamber (AEC) took a group of African energy leaders to Caracas. While there, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry and state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). The agreement commits both sides to work together on upstream development and modernizing refineries. It also opens the door to shipping liquefied petroleum gas and bitumen to Africa and broadening technical training. Venezuela is an honorary member of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO). It later sent Vice Minister Arturo Gil to Cape Town to build on the agreement.

AEW 2026 is built around dealmaking, with sessions spanning the full energy value chain and a clear focus on moving capital into projects. Senior Venezuelan representation in Cape Town gives African national oil companies and investors direct access to the officials driving Venezuela’s hydrocarbons revival and fosters workforce cooperation with the continent.

Ricardo Gómez heads the Vice Ministry of Commercial Policy, the office within the Ministry responsible for coordinating and advancing the sale of Venezuela’s hydrocarbons. His portfolio aligns closely with the MoU’s trade provisions, which identified liquefied petroleum gas and bitumen as potential exports to Africa. Venezuela’s resource base gives the trade relationship considerable depth, with the country holding some 300 billion barrels of oil reserves and large volumes of natural gas.

Celia Bejarano leads UVH, Venezuela’s public university for hydrocarbons education, headquartered in Los Teques. The university has become a cornerstone of the Africa-Venezuela partnership. During an AEC working visit to Caracas, the Chamber and UVH worked through how African engineers could train at the university. The AEC has since committed to sending 10 to 15 participants from across Africa through dedicated technical programs at UVH, drawing on Venezuela’s decades of producing heavy crude onshore and developing offshore fields.

“When we went to Caracas in February, we said the relationship had to go both ways. Now Venezuela is coming to Cape Town, and I want our companies to make the most of it, whether that means trade in gas and bitumen or getting more of our young engineers trained at the university,” said NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the AEC.

The Caracas MoU also set up a joint working group tasked with pinpointing investment prospects and lining up projects for African and Venezuelan companies. AEW 2026 gives the partnership’s African counterparts a platform to engage the delegation in person as the work moves forward.

African Energy Week 2026 takes place October 12-16 at the Cape Town International Convention Center. To register as a delegate, visit  https://apo-opa.co/4zr7ekJ.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.