Petrozuata - Rise and Fall of a Venezuelan O&G Icon

Once upon a time in pre-revolutionary, pre-21st-Century-Socialism Venezuela, the then leaders of our Country and our Oil and Gas industry, decided to put forward a plan to take advantage of and exploit the massive existing extra heavy crude oil reserves buried deep down beneath the Orinoco Belt. This lead to the formation of agreements and JV's between the national oil company (PDVSA) and a group of multinational oil companies to develop 4 massive projects to this effect. This is how, in 1997, Petrolera Zuata C.A. (Petrozuata), the first of these JV's was born, with the participation of ConocoPhillips and PDVSA holding equal share. As a pioneer JV, Petrozuata had the advantage to be the first one to tap into the Venezuelan rich market of talents needed to contribute and take part of this ambitious endeavor; more about this point, later.

I had the fortune to be part of this venture from early on. First, seconded to the consortium awarded the construction of the Downstream facilities project as Field Procurement Engineer, deployed during the construction phase of these facilities (an impressive 120k BPD Upgrader plant, with a towering 4-drum Delayed Coker unit at its core, seen in the picture above); and later as full-time employee of Petrozuata from 2001 to 2007, where I held different positions in the Materials, Logistics and Services department, dealing with OPEX and CAPEX equipment and services requirements, materials control, purchasing and contracts.

In my humble opinion, and still to this date, I regard Petrozuata as a success story in its first years of existence; and my time in this company as the finest and dearest in my career. Why?. Here's my simplistic take:

1. Organizational Excellence: Unlike other companies I've had the opportunity to be part of, Petrozuata was a NEW organization, where the experience and methods of the shareholding companies played a role initially as blueprint, yet the new company was given the freedom to go back to the white board and improve or design, many times from scratch, their own governance processes and procedures.
2. Outstanding Leadership: The leaders of Petrozuata had a clear vision, and were able to convey it to the rest of us in a transparent way. They knew what it would take, and they were bold in taking top-down decisions to implement the best practices in the industry. On their watch, a strong process and systems structure was implemented, this lead to clarity, everybody knew what role exactly to play to contribute to our goals, and we all pulled in the same direction.
3. Engaged People: Obviously the two above factors are essential to a great company culture. There was an environment of trust and camaraderie, people worked within a frame of clear and efficient systems and procedures, therefore was able to have a healthy work-life balance; and received support and acknowledgement from top management. I've always thought, that one of the main reasons that this worked like that, was the excellent human capital of the company across the board; as mentioned above, Petrozuata was able to recruit local talent and expertise before any other JV could, and was also able to provide excellent compensation and work environment.

Unfortunately, factors outside and beyond the company's control caused its demise, "the crown jewel" of the Orinoco Belt JV's, as I like to call it, was taken over by PDVSA in an unilateral move in 2007, imposing conditions that ConocoPhillips was not able to accept, this later lead to an international arbitration process between ConocoPhillips and the Venezuelan State, however the damage was done. I parted ways with Petrozuata that very same year of 2007, as I could clearly foresee what was going to be the outcome. ConocoPhillips' share in Petrozuata was seized by the Venezuelan government and the company disappeared into PDVSA's monster belly later on. Arbitration didn't go on PDVSA's favor, forced to pay billions to ConocoPhillips in compensation, PDVSA is nowadays a corrupted and broke company.

One positive personal takeaway of my departure from Petrozuata, apart from the fantastic experience and relationships we created; was that it forced me to reinvent myself, first as a failed entrepreneur, and later by starting a fulfilling international career doing what I like most, contributing my grain of sand to the success of challenging projects around the world.

However, I will always look back with nostalgia at my tenure in Petrozuata, as fond memories of a long-gone era, in a long-gone Country of opportunities.