Chevron to expand Venezuela oil operations with US$7 billion plan
The US energy giant aims to double production, even as analysts warn that the nation’s decrepit infrastructure would take years to fix
Oil giant Chevron confirmed that it would expand operations in Venezuela after US President Donald Trump announced an ambitious deal to develop the nation’s oil reserves and give the Pentagon a stake in the profits.
Chevron, the only US oil company with a major presence in Venezuela, said on Wednesday that it had been assigned additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt, where it has active operations.
The company plans to invest more than US$7 billion over the next five years, with the goal of more than doubling its current production to about 600,000 barrels a day.
“Chevron’s history in Venezuela spans more than a century, and our expanded position reflects our confidence in the country’s deep resource potential,” CEO Mike Wirth said in a prepared statement.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven reserves, totalling more than 303 billion barrels of crude oil, according to Opec’s 2025 Annual Statistical Bulletin. Saudi Arabia is a distant second with 267 billion barrels.
Yet because Venezuela’s 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 US produces almost 14 million barrels per day.