What was the first company to drill for oil in Venezuela?
History of the Venezuelan oil industry
Caribbean Petroleum Company
Despite the knowledge of the existence of oil reserves in Venezuela for centuries, the first oil wells of significance were not drilled until the early 1910s. In 1908, Juan Vicente Gómez replaced his ailing predecessor, Cipriano Castro, as the president of Venezuela.  Over the next few years, Gómez granted several concessions to explore, produce, and refine oil.  Most of these oil concessions were granted to his closest friends, and they in turn passed them on to foreign oil companies that could actually develop them.[8]  One such concession was granted to Rafael Max Valladares who hired Caribbean Petroleum Company (later acquired by Royal Dutch Shell) to carry out his oil exploration project. On 15 April 1914, upon the completion of the Zumaque-I (now called MG-I) oil well, the first Venezuelan oilfield of importance, Mene Grande, was discovered by Caribbean Petroleum in the Maracaibo Basin.[7]  This major discovery encouraged a massive wave of foreign oil companies to Venezuela in an attempt to get a piece of the action.