{"id":834935,"date":"2026-09-03T07:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T07:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/834935\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T07:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T07:20:11","slug":"chevron-confirms-its-expanding-operations-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/834935\/","title":{"rendered":"Chevron confirms it’s expanding operations in Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oil giant Chevron confirmed that it will expand operations in Venezuela after President Donald Trump announced an ambitious deal<\/a> to develop the nation\u2019s oil reserves<\/a> and give the Pentagon a stake in the profits.<\/p>\n

Chevron, the only U.S. oil company with a major presence in Venezuela, said Wednesday that it has been assigned additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt, where it has active operations. The company plans to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years, with the goal of more than doubling its current production to about 600,000 barrels a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cChevron\u2019s history in Venezuela spans more than a century, and our expanded position reflects our confidence in the country\u2019s deep resource potential,\u201d CEO Mike Wirth said in a prepared statement. <\/p>\n

Venezuela holds the world\u2019s largest proven reserves, totaling more than 303 billion barrels of crude oil, according to OPEC\u2019s 2025 Annual Statistical Bulletin. Saudi Arabia is a distant second with 267 billion barrels.<\/p>\n

Yet because Venezuela\u2019s energy infrastructure is severely degraded and the nation is operating under international sanctions, its daily production is just over 1 million barrels, compared with the 10 million to 11 million barrels that Saudi Arabia produces each day. The U.S. produces almost 14 million barrels per day. <\/p>\n

Chevron\u2019s expansion follows US deal with Venezuela<\/p>\n

Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, has had a presence in Venezuela since 1923. <\/p>\n

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday attended a ceremony in Venezuela\u2019s capital in which Chevron, Italian oil company Eni and other energy companies signed agreements with the South American country\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s mission in Venezuela is straightforward. The mission is to bring peace, freedom, opportunity and prosperity to the people of Venezuela,\u201d Wright said in Caracas. \u201cI believe the deals that are signed today \u2013 tens of billions of dollars of investment, ultimately many thousands of jobs \u2013 are critical in starting this ball rolling of peace, opportunity and prosperity for everyone in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House confirmed Monday that it is partnering with North American Blue Energy Partners, NABEP, as part of Trump<\/a> \u2019s push to tap into Venezuela\u2019s oil industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet the agreement has been met with skepticism from energy experts who say it will take years to revive Venezuela\u2019s oil industry<\/a>, which is in disarray after years of neglect. <\/p>\n

There are also questions about whether Venezuela\u2019s acting president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez<\/a>, has the authority to give NABEP 100-year rights over 17 oil fields with reserves of 65 billion barrels \u2014 and whether future Venezuelan or American administrations would overturn the agreement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Sign up for Morning Wire:
\n Our flagship newsletter breaks down the biggest headlines of the day.\n <\/p>\n

US pushes back on criticism<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s constitution states that arrangements like the one that the United States has entered must be approved by the National Assembly, which has not happened, wrote Ian V\u00e1squez, vice president for international studies at the Cato Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal lacks legitimacy since it was agreed to with a dictatorship that has clung to power for decades through violence and by committing what was probably the largest electoral fraud in Latin American history in 2024,\u201d V\u00e1squez wrote. \u201cThe agreement was also reached under overwhelming pressure, military and otherwise, from the United States. As such, any future Venezuelan democracy will question the deal, thus undermining confidence in the current arrangement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling party-controlled National Assembly expressed support for the agreement during its Tuesday session, but lawmakers held no debate or voted to approve it. <\/p>\n

Wright on Wednesday pushed back on criticism, telling reporters that the deal is \u201ca massive win\u201d for both countries. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause what it\u2019s going to do is take resources that are underground, not helping anyone, and invest capital and money and technology and bring them to the surface to better the lives of Venezuelans, better supply energy to Americans,\u201d Wright said during a joint press conference with Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n

Trump has eyed Venezuela\u2019s oil since the January capture of then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and has pressed to get U.S. businesses back into the country. \u201cWe have Exxon going in, we have Chevron going in. We have our big oil companies going in,\u201d he said that same month. <\/p>\n

He suggested again on Monday that other U.S. oil majors were preparing for a return, though other than Chevron, there is no evidence of that.<\/p>\n

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said in January that Venezuela was \u201c uninvestable<\/a>.\u201d An Exxon spokesman said this week that \u201cnothing has changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

US oil majors remain hesitant<\/p>\n

The history of U.S. oil majors in Venezuela explains the hesitation.<\/p>\n

Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in 1976 and created the state-owned company Petr\u00f3leos de Venezuela S.A. A second nationalization occurred in 2007, when President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez pushed foreign oil companies into state-controlled joint ventures and seized the assets of companies that refused. Chevron agreed to a joint venture. Others, including Exxon and ConocoPhillips, refused, and Venezuela took their assets.<\/p>\n

Trump has said that the agreement with Venezuela would \u201csubstantially lower\u201d gasoline prices in the U.S. However, analysts have repeatedly warned that Venezuela\u2019s dilapidated oil infrastructure<\/a> will require years of restoration work and tens of billions of dollars to resuscitate. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt could take 2 to 4 years to get new greenfield facilities online in the Orinoco region,\u201d Amy Jaffe, director of the Global Energy, Climate, and Sustainability Lab at New York University, said in an email. \u201cOther places where there is no pipeline and other kinds of support infrastructure could take longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline jumped overnight to $4.12, according to the motor club AAA. That is 93 cents more than it cost at this point last year. <\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oil giant Chevron confirmed that it will expand operations in Venezuela after President Donald Trump announced an ambitious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[351655,23,28,14271,17557,3316,176193,194333,12,3321,342895,5240,793,62931,353393,51389,3140,25219,1576,3,18231,139727,28429,18598,1022,1059,12955,192706,21,19,22,20,25,24,18232,18597,800,965],"class_list":["post-834935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-acting-president","tag-america","tag-business","tag-central-america","tag-chevron-corp","tag-christopher-wright","tag-conocophillips","tag-darren-woods","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-industry","tag-eni-spa","tag-exxon-mobil-corp","tag-general-news","tag-hugo-chavez","tag-ian-vsquez","tag-italy-government","tag-latin-america","tag-mike-wirth","tag-military-and-defense","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-oil-and-gas-industry","tag-saudi-arabia-government","tag-south-america","tag-texas","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-department-of-defense","tag-u-s-venezuela-conflict","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-venezuela","tag-venezuela-government","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}