Can Venezuela Revive Its Economy Without Modernizing Its Environmental Regulatory Framework?

Can Venezuela Revive Its Economy Without Modernizing Its Environmental Regulatory Framework?

By María Eugenia Reyes Feo | Ágora Abogados SC

Venezuela is moving forward with plans to reactivate its strategic sectors: oil and gas, mining, and energy generation and distribution. The question that few ask out loud is this: can these projects be implemented in a predictable, legally sound environment under a clear and technically current regulatory framework?

The honest answer, today, is incomplete. The environmental regulatory framework currently in force in Venezuela is over 30 years old. The technical standards that complement the Environmental Criminal Law were published in 1992. The scientific and technological landscape of that era is not the landscape of 2026. For any investor evaluating a project in Venezuela, that gap is not an academic detail — it is a concrete legal risk.

The current legal framework and its limitations

• Venezuela’s environmental framework rests primarily on two pillars: the Organic Environmental Law of 2006 (which repealed the 1976 law) and the Environmental Criminal Law of 2012 (which repealed the 1992 law). The former establishes the requirements and parameters that must be met by those carrying out activities capable of degrading the environment, with administrative penalties for non-compliance. The latter criminalizes conduct that violates provisions on environmental conservation, protection, and improvement.

• Most environmental crimes are defined through the referral technique, whereby criminal provisions are complemented by reference to norms of primarily technical content. The Environmental Criminal Law requires that such norms have the status of a law, decree, or resolution, and that they include within themselves all the elements necessary to complete the crime — without a second referral being permitted. In other words, the complementary norm may not refer to another norm of the same nature. If those complementary norms are obsolete or invalid, the criminal provision itself is called into question.

• When the Environmental Criminal Law was enacted in 1992, the legislature ordered the publication within 90 days of the technical standards then in force, elevating them to decree status. This was done, with changes that were more formal than substantive. In subsequent years, some standards were updated marginally. Most have remained unchanged.

Why this matters for today's projects

• Revitalization projects in oil and gas, mining, and energy require environmental impact assessments, permits, monitoring controls, and continuous oversight throughout their operational life. All of these processes are governed by technical standards that are today obsolete in many respects.

• An investor operating under outdated standards may face regulatory uncertainty: environmental authorities could demand parameters other than those literally in force, invoking more recent international criteria or an expansive interpretation of their authority.

• Obsolete technical standards also create gaps that complicate permit acquisition, trigger legal challenges and delays, or expose a project to unexpected legal contingencies that are difficult to anticipate through a standard due diligence process.

For projects returning to operation, this issue becomes especially concrete in the Environmental and Sociocultural Impact Assessment process. See our related analysis on the role of the ESIA in Venezuela’s oil, gas, and electricity reactivation.

What needs to happen

• Updating the environmental technical standards framework to reflect current scientific and technological knowledge is a priority. This does not require amending the core legislation: it is sufficient to review, amend or replace the complementary technical decrees and resolutions — a specific and achievable regulatory task.

• This update requires sustained investment in institutional capacity: technological equipment, environmental monitoring laboratories, and specialized human resources, both in the public and private sectors.

• For the private sector, anticipating this scenario is essential. Environmental due diligence for a project in Venezuela must consider not only literal compliance with current standards, but also the reasonableness of those standards against applicable international benchmarks and the regulator’s actual practice.

An opportunity not to be missed

Economic reactivation and environmental framework modernization are not competing objectives — they are complementary. An updated technical framework gives investors legal certainty, shields the State from international contingencies, and ensures that development is carried out sustainably. Venezuela has the opportunity to demonstrate that it can do both at the same time.

Because in Venezuela, investment opportunity and regulatory risk are two sides of the same coin. Knowing how to manage both makes all the difference.

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