📊 Bare: the bill no one sent to the State
Engineer Elías Matta, a former lawmaker with knowledge of the energy business, put figures to an issue that almost always remains mere talk: the awarding of oil fields through direct assignment, without a public tender. The Bare Block, located in the Orinoco Oil Belt, is a case that can no longer be covered up with rhetoric, because the amount was ultimately disclosed in U.S. regulatory filings.
According to Matta’s account, as reported by international news agencies, the sequence was as follows: on September 4, PDVSA signed a 25-year Productive Participation Contract (CPP) for Bare at Miraflores with a company belonging to the Gilinski Group. Two days earlier, GeoPark had notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it would acquire the company holding that contract, paying with 42.1 million newly issued shares, equivalent to about $515 million. According to Bloomberg, the transfer was completed hours after the contract was signed, and the deal would give the Gilinski Group control of 56.3% of GeoPark.
Translated: The state granted a right through an administrative process that, days later, a private company valued at more than $500 million. That difference, in Matta’s words, was the price of gaining access to a national asset, and it ended up in the hands of an intermediary, not the country.
📈 It’s not an accident, it’s a method
The expert insists that Bare should not be viewed as an isolated incident. Between 2024 and January 2026, PDVSA signed 29 Productive Participation Contracts without publicly identifying the companies that benefited, and without any competitive bidding process. What’s more, the reform of the Organic Hydrocarbons Law approved in January 2026 shielded this practice by removing these contracts from the scope of the Public Procurement Law (Article 40) and eliminating the need for approval by the National Assembly.
Matta himself cautions that the calculation should be taken with a grain of salt: at market value, the shares are worth around $407 million, and a cash payment would probably have been lower or deferred. But the central point remains unchanged: someone paid hundreds of millions for access to a national resource, and that money did not enter the Republic’s coffers.
🔎 The technical detail that raises concern
The deal was structured through the purchase of a Panamanian company, Energy Assets International S. A., allowing the Venezuelan contractor to retain its direct shareholders and, according to Matta, bypass the ministerial authorization required under Article 25 of the Law and Article 10 of its Regulations to transfer rights and interests. Article 14 also requires the Ministry to assess the applicant’s suitability, technical capacity, and minimum experience. “The company that signed had no known track record in the oil industry and was never going to operate the field,” says the engineer. The deal’s final closing still depends on regulatory approvals and a sanctions regime whose deadline expires at the end of December.
💰 What does this have to do with your USDT?
Much more than it seems. When oil revenues are not captured, the fiscal gap ends up being financed through money creation, debt, or fewer foreign currency reserves available to intervene in the exchange rate. In a country already operating under controls and sanctions, with an economy that is partially dollarized, the effects quickly reach everyday life: less dollar supply in the formal system, greater pressure on the parallel exchange rate, and a widening gap.
For cryptocurrency users, this is a familiar mix. Whenever the flow of foreign currency into the country contracts, USDT on P2P platforms becomes a safe haven and a payment tool for those who need to move value without relying on traditional banks. It is no coincidence that spikes in volume on Venezuelan peer-to-peer markets coincide with episodes of exchange-rate uncertainty or news that shakes confidence in the management of public revenues.
📖 Read the full article: https://pitbullchain.com/noticias/faja-del-orinoco-a-dedo-us-515-millones-que-nunca-entraron-al-pais-428162
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