Eni Targets Raising Junin-5 Output to 200,000 Barrels a Day Within 18 to 24 Months

Key Facts

Eni is targeting production of 200,000 barrels a day at Venezuela’s Junin-5 oil field, up from about 12,000 barrels a day currently, within 18 to 24 months of the first-phase investment decision. Reuters quoted a company official as saying the increase is tied to the investment decision and does not represent a fixed date on the company’s calendar. Eni has submitted a field development plan to Venezuelan authorities, with the investment decision potentially coming before the end of 2026. This follows the project’s move to a production-sharing contract that gives Eni exclusive operator status. The next step is therefore to complete the approvals and move from the submitted plan to the investment decision.

The first-phase target marks a major jump from current output, at about 16 times the roughly 12,000 barrels a day currently produced. The onshore field is in the Orinoco Belt, and Eni says it contains 35 billion barrels of oil in place. The plan calls for production to increase in stages rather than reaching the target level immediately. An Eni official said output of 200,000 barrels a day is expected within 18 to 24 months after the investment decision. This wording makes clear that the timeline starts with the decision, not the contract signing or the date the plan was announced.

Eni has outlined a subsequent expansion path after the first phase: production could rise to 400,000 barrels a day by the end of 2029, then eventually reach one million barrels a day during 2032–2033. The company presented these levels as potential stages in the field’s development, not as existing output or increases already achieved. The first-phase target of 200,000 barrels a day comes before those later levels. The development sequence depends on the investment decision and subsequent execution. The announced dates remain tied to the coming phases, while the statement did not confirm that those levels would be reached.

The new production-sharing contract changes the project’s operating framework, giving Eni exclusive operator status for 25 years, with the option to extend. Before the move to this system, the Petrojunin joint venture was split between Eni, which held 40%, and Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, which held 60%. Eni said on 2 September that the field was producing about 12,000 barrels a day and contained 35 billion barrels of oil in place. The figures show the gap between current output and the capacity targeted by the development plan. Exclusive operator status also makes Eni responsible for operating the field under the terms of the new contract.

The company previously announced that production at Junin-5 began in 2013, when Petrojunin was a joint venture between Eni and PDVSA. The two companies then targeted raising output to about 15,000 barrels a day by the end of that year. In its 2026 Capital Markets Update, Eni presented its original plan to develop the field to stable production of about 180,000 barrels a day, with recoverable resources estimated at about two billion barrels. That compares with the new first-phase target of 200,000 barrels a day and the later estimates of 400,000 barrels a day and then one million barrels a day. Current field output, according to the company’s September disclosure, remains about 12,000 barrels a day.

In a statement after the agreement was signed, Eni’s chief executive said the company would begin drilling the first well at the field the following day. That statement does not change the fact that the 28 October announcement does not confirm the start of a new operating phase, and that the plan remains tied to the first-phase investment decision. Eni’s net hydrocarbon production in Venezuela was 64,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2025, most of it from the Perla gas field. The company says it has been present in Venezuela since 1998 and holds six mining licences in the country. This places Junin-5 within Eni’s existing operations in the country, with the project’s next milestone being the investment decision expected before the end of 2026.