*

Formentera Partners eyes La Luna and Querecual fields in

Venezuela

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Independent oil firms expected to lead exploration in

Venezuela

*

Sheffield sees potential in Venezuela's shale akin to

Permian

Basin

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Private family offices may fund independent producers in

Venezuela

(Updates throughout with comments from founder, background on

Venezuela's shale fields and White House meeting)

By Arathy Somasekhar

HOUSTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Privately-held U.S. oil and

gas company Formentera Partners is looking at hiring a technical

team ‌to study Venezuela's shale fields, its founder Bryan

Sheffield said in an interview with Reuters on Saturday.

Sheffield, the son of Pioneer Natural Resources founder

Scott Sheffield, ​said his company was interested in the La Luna

field in the Zulia state in the western part ‍of the South

American country and the Querecual field in the east.

"After speaking with ⁠Energy Secretary Chris Wright, I ⁠feel

like I should hire a team to study the technical side and look

at rock and shale fields in Venezuela," said Sheffield, who

attended a ‌White House meeting on Friday between oil CEOs and

U.S. ​President Donald Trump and Wright.

"We are motivated and interested, but also obviously

cautious," Sheffield said, adding that worries about safety,

given reports of the presence of armed militia, need to be

assuaged.

"We ⁠want to stay ahead of the pack and be ‍ready when the

floodgates ​open," he said.

The U.S. State Department issued an alert telling U.S.

citizens still in Venezuela to leave the country immediately,

citing reports of groups of armed militias.

Sheffield, who was CEO of publicly-traded Parsley ‍Energy

before it was acquired by Pioneer Natural Resources, said he

expects the exploration wave in Venezuela to be driven

by independent oil companies, echoing U.S. Treasury Secretary

Scott Bessent's comments earlier this week that the largest oil

companies are likely to move slower in terms of making

investments in Venezuela, with wildcatters or independent oil

companies likely to move much more quickly.

"The independent companies will take more risk than oil

majors, make money and prove the fields," Sheffield ​said.

The White ‍House meeting on Friday included Bill Armstrong, CEO

of Armstrong Oil and Gas which operates in nearby Aruba, Jeff

Hildebrand, founder of Hilcorp Energy, Ross Perot Jr, who

founded privately-held HKN Energy which has operations ​in Iraq.

The meeting also included U.S. majors Exxon Mobil ( XOM ),

Chevron ( CVX ), as well as European majors Shell, Eni

and Repsol.

SHALE RESERVES YET TO BE PROVEN

While Venezuela has the world's largest crude oil reserves,

its shale fields are yet to be proven.

It would cost between $500 million and $1 billion to get

shale production going in Venezuela, Sheffield estimated, adding

that he sees similarities between the shale region in the South

American country and the Permian Basin, the U.S.'s top shale

production area spread across Texas and New Mexico.

Capital from private ​family offices is likely to back

independent producers, Sheffield said, as pension funds and

institutional investors tend to be more risk-averse.

The U.S. government seemed unlikely to backstop or protect

U.S. companies' investment in Venezuela, he added. Trump said on

Friday that he wants the oil industry to invest $100 ‍billion to

expand oil production.