Chevron, the only U.S. oil company with a significant presence in Venezuela, has announced that additional acreage will be allocated and production will double.
Published September 2, 2026
Chevron will invest more than $7 billion through a joint venture in Venezuela to double oil production in the South American country to about 600,000 barrels per day over the next five years, the US oil giant announced.
Chevron, the only U.S. oil company with a significant presence in the country, announced Wednesday that it had been allocated additional land in the Orinoco Belt. The company is firmly established there, and the Petroindependencia joint venture will be expanded to include two adjacent areas in the Carabobo region.
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“Chevron’s history in Venezuela spans more than a century, and our expanded position reflects our confidence in this country’s deep resource potential and our ability to compete for investments within our portfolio for decades to come,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in a statement.
The announcement came days after US President Donald Trump announced an unprecedented deal involving one-fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves, in which the US government would acquire a stake in a private oil company operating in the country. Chevron’s expansion is separate from that effort, but it adds to President Trump’s efforts to expand production in Venezuela.
Venezuela boasts the world’s largest oil reserves, but due to years of mismanagement and lack of investment by the state oil company PDVSA, as well as U.S. sanctions, current production remains at around 1.25 million barrels per day, more than the 3 million barrels per day it achieved 20 years ago.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday that Venezuela’s total oil production is now expected to reach 2 million barrels per day by the end of the decade.
Chevron said the new agreement also provides enhanced financial, commercial and legal conditions to protect long-term investments, adding that total production costs are expected to be less than $20 per barrel.
Wirth said in an interview with CNBC that the joint venture’s infrastructure is in good condition and that the development of the new field will build on existing facilities and pipeline infrastructure.
“Our ability to grow at low cost is completely different than going into a brownfield area where there are no roads, no water, no power,” he says.
In addition to Chevron, oil producer ENI, investor KEO Capital and energy company Primavera, co-founded by billionaire Fred Asum to invest in Venezuela, are among the companies expected to sign an energy deal in Venezuela as early as Wednesday, two people close to the preparations told Reuters.
Most deals imply an expansion of projects that have been under negotiation as part of moving dozens of energy contracts to new terms under sweeping oil reforms approved in January.
Wright and Venezuelan Oil Minister Paula Henao, who arrived in Caracas late Tuesday, will oversee the deal, officials said.
US promotes energy investment
After the United States abducted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power in January, President Trump pushed ahead with a $100 billion restructuring plan for Venezuela’s energy sector and encouraged American oil companies to invest in the country.
While Chevron’s Venezuela operations have been uninterrupted for at least 100 years, fellow oil producers ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips have remained on the sidelines, having pulled out of the country in 2007 when their assets were nationalized under former President Hugo Chávez’s government.
Chevron has been operating in Venezuela since 1923 and has three joint ventures in the country. Petroindependencia and Petropia operate in the Orinoco Belt, while Petrovoscan operates in the western Zulia region.
Chevron said the addition of the Carabobo site will expand its existing operations, which have increased production of extra-heavy oil through joint ventures.
