Three years after $1-billion Venezuela deal, US oil firm shuts doors

Horizontal never completed the wells, its financial backer took a provision for losses on the loan, and Venezuela's production continued to fall

An Oklahoma oilfield company that played a central role in Venezuela’s high profile attempt to convince the world it could halt production declines at its dilapidated oilfields has shut its doors, said three people familiar with the matter.

In 2016, Horizontal Well Drillers, a closely held US driller, won a $1.29 billion contract to drill 191 wells in Venezuela's Orinoco Belt, part of an unusual plan to sharply boost output and halt Venezuela's economic collapse. It and two other drilling contractors were asked to finance the work themselves and be paid in future production, according to documents obtained by Reuters