Chevron Expansion in Venezuela Extends U.S. Influence Over Oil Riches
New York Times · LC · trust 69/100
The U.S. energy giant, which stayed in the country after other Western companies left, will invest $7 billion in the country to more than double its production there.
Listen · 3:27 min Share full article Oil infrastructure in Cabimas, Venezuela. Chevron’s expansion is separate from President Trump’s deal for control of oil reserves in the country. Credit... Maryorin Mendez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images By Rebecca F. Elliott
The Houston-based company, already Venezuela’s largest private oil producer, said it would more than double its production in the country over the next five years to 600,000 barrels a day. That represents over half of Venezuela’s current output.
Chevron, which is gaining access to new areas in the oil-rich Orinoco Belt region, plans to invest more than $7 billion in Venezuela in that period.
The company announced its plans days after President Trump said his administration was pursuing a highly unusual partnership with a different oil company that would give the U.S. government a direct hand in extracting oil on foreign soil.
The two deals are separate, but both advance Mr. Trump’s goal of exerting much more control over Venezuela’s energy industry after U.S. forces captured the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January.
“Our expanded position reflects our confidence in the country’s deep resource potential and its ability to compete for investment within our portfolio for decades,” Chevron’s chief executive, Mike Wirth, said in a statement.
A signing ceremony is scheduled for later on Wednesday at the presidential palace in Caracas. Mr. Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodríguez, and the U.S. energy secretary, Chris Wright, are expected to attend.
Chevron has been steadily expanding in the Orinoco Belt, including by agreeing earlier this year to trade assets with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela.
As of earlier this summer, Chevron was producing around 280,000 barrels of oil a day in Venezuela and expected to increase that by up to 50 percent by the end of 2028, said Eimear Bonner, the company’s chief financial officer.
Chevron is unique among big American oil producers for remaining in Venezuela after the country forced foreign companies to accept smaller stakes in their projects about two decades ago. Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips left after refusing to accept those changes.
Chevron’s decision to stay — which looked at times like a very bad bet — now appears to be paying off. The company has been in a prime position as the Trump administration has sought to carve out a bigger role for U.S. companies in Venezuela.
That said, the Trump administration’s new partnership, which is with an influential and divisive Venezuelan businessman , Alejandro Betancourt López, may complicate Chevron’s standing in the country by elevating a competitor. Mr. Betancourt’s family controls Venezuela’s second-largest private oil producer, North American Blue Energy Partners.
Under the deal announced by the administration, the U.S. government would receive the option to acquire an ownership stake of 35 percent in the parent company of North American Blue Energy Partners. The United States would also secure preferential access to the oil that the company produced and considerable say over its corporate governance.
Rebecca F. Elliott covers energy for The Times.
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