Baker Hughes' Venezuela Gas Deal Could Unlock the Country's First-Ever LNG Exports: What to Know

Baker Hughes signed two Venezuela gas deals with PDVSA and New Stratus Energy, targeting the country's first-ever LNG exports.

Here's what the agreements actually mean.

A gas station run by Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is seen in Caracas on January 27, 2026.

Photo by Ronaldo SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images The Briefing: Baker Hughes, PDVSA, Houston-based engineering firm Lindsayca, and U.S.

LNG developer Fulcrum LNG signed a strategic alliance to build Venezuela's first integrated natural gas value chain, spanning production, processing, and potential LNG exports.

A separate memorandum of understanding with Calgary, Alberta-based New Stratus Energy covers future upstream oil and gas development; neither agreement discloses financial terms or commits the parties to specific projects.

energy companies formalizes positions in Venezuela following the January 2026 removal of Nicolás Maduro — with SLB and Hunt Oil having already signed PDVSA agreements six weeks earlier.

Baker Hughes has formalized two strategic agreements aimed at rebuilding Venezuela's long-neglected natural gas infrastructure and, over the longer term, enabling what the company says would be the country's first LNG exports.

The deals were announced Monday in Caracas, where Baker Hughes Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Simonelli led the signing of a strategic alliance alongside Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, Houston-based engineering firm Lindsayca, and U.S.

A separate memorandum of understanding with Calgary, Alberta-based New Stratus Energy Inc.

— announced alongside the Caracas agreement but signed at an earlier date — covers future upstream oil and gas development across Venezuela.

The four-way alliance between Baker Hughes, PDVSA, Lindsayca, and Fulcrum LNG is designed to connect each stage of Venezuela's gas chain: upstream resource development, midstream processing and transportation, domestic gas commercialization, and eventual LNG exports.

Each company brings a distinct capability to the table.

Baker Hughes contributes its energy technology portfolio, covering oil and gas field development, gas processing, and LNG solutions.

Lindsayca adds engineering, procurement, construction, and operational capabilities built over four decades of in-country project work.

Fulcrum LNG brings midstream project development, private-capital financing, and market access expertise — a model it has applied to other projects in Latin America and the Atlantic Basin.

Near-term work will concentrate on infrastructure that can satisfy PDVSA's internal gas requirements and expand domestic supply, including fuel for power generation.

Venezuela's chronic electricity shortages have weighed on industrial output and daily life for years, making this domestic dimension as politically significant as it is commercially relevant.

Over the medium and longer term, the alliance will evaluate new open-access midstream and LNG infrastructure that would give PDVSA and other upstream operators a path to monetize gas reserves and send LNG cargoes to export markets — something Venezuela has never accomplished.

The MOU with New Stratus Energy , a Canadian exploration and production company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, will see Baker Hughes deploy its integrated technology portfolio — spanning subsurface evaluation, drilling, production systems, digital tools, and LNG — to support oil and gas prospects across Venezuela.

The Baker Hughes press release describes the New Stratus agreement as having been "recently signed," indicating it was formalized before Monday's Caracas ceremony rather than simultaneously with the PDVSA alliance.

No financial terms were disclosed for either agreement.

Each specific project contemplated under both deals will require separate definitive contracts, individual approvals from all parties, and compliance with applicable U.S.

sanctions and export control requirements , including any authorizations required from the U.S.

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Its Venezuelan subsidiary, Lindsay C.A., has been operating in the country since 1986, giving the consortium nearly four decades of experience executing gas, oil, and power generation projects inside Venezuela.