US oil giant Chevron has confirmed plans to expand its operations in Venezuela after President Donald Trump announced an ambitious deal aimed at developing the country's vast oil reserves and giving the Pentagon a share of the profits.
Chevron, the only major US oil company with a significant presence in Venezuela, said Wednesday that it had been allocated additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt, where it already operates. The company plans to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years, aiming to more than double its current production to around 600,000 barrels per 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 has the world's largest proven crude oil reserves, with more than 303 billion barrels, according to OPEC's 2025 Annual Statistical Bulletin. Saudi Arabia ranks second with 267 billion barrels.
However, Venezuela's severely deteriorated energy infrastructure and international sanctions have kept its daily oil output at just over 1 million barrels, compared with Saudi Arabia's 10 million to 11 million barrels a day. US production is nearly 14 million barrels per day.
Chevron expansion follows US-Venezuela deal
Chevron, the second-largest US oil company, has operated in Venezuela since 1923.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright attended a ceremony in Caracas on Wednesday where Chevron, Italian energy company Eni and other firms signed agreements with the Venezuelan government.
“President Trump's mission in Venezuela is straightforward. The mission is to bring peace, freedom, opportunity and prosperity to the people of Venezuela,” Wright said in Caracas. “I believe the deals that are signed today — tens of billions of dollars of investment, ultimately many thousands of jobs — are critical in starting this ball rolling of peace, opportunity and prosperity for everyone in Venezuela.”
The White House confirmed Monday that it is partnering with North American Blue Energy Partners, or NABEP, as part of Trump's efforts to expand US involvement in Venezuela's oil sector.
The agreement, however, has drawn skepticism from energy experts who say it could take years to restore Venezuela's oil industry, which has deteriorated after years of neglect.
Questions have also been raised over whether Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, has the authority to grant NABEP 100-year rights to 17 oil fields containing an estimated 65 billion barrels of reserves, and whether future Venezuelan or US administrations could reverse the agreement.
US pushes back against criticism
Venezuela's constitution requires arrangements of this nature involving the United States to be approved by the National Assembly, which has not taken such action, wrote Ian Vásquez, vice president for international studies at the Cato Institute.
“The 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,” Vásquez wrote.
He also said the agreement was reached under significant US pressure, including military pressure, and argued that any future democratic government in Venezuela could challenge the deal, potentially undermining confidence in the arrangement.
The ruling-party-controlled National Assembly expressed support for the agreement during its Tuesday session, but lawmakers neither debated the deal nor voted to approve it.
Wright on Wednesday rejected the criticism, describing the agreement as “a massive win” for both countries.
“What it's 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,” Wright said at a joint news conference with Rodríguez.
Trump has been focused on Venezuela's oil industry since the capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro in January and has pushed for US businesses to return to the country.
“We have Exxon going in, we have Chevron going in. We have our big oil companies going in,” Trump said at the time.
He again suggested Monday that other major US oil companies were preparing to return, although there is no evidence of such plans beyond Chevron.
Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said in January that Venezuela was “uninvestable.” An Exxon spokesman said this week that “nothing has changed.”
US oil majors remain hesitant
The history of US oil companies in Venezuela helps explain their reluctance.
Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in 1976 and established the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. A second nationalization took place in 2007, when then-President Hugo Chávez required foreign oil companies to enter state-controlled joint ventures and seized the assets of companies that refused.
Chevron agreed to participate in a joint venture, while Exxon and ConocoPhillips refused, prompting Venezuela to seize their assets.
Trump has said the agreement with Venezuela will “substantially lower” gasoline prices in the United States. Analysts, however, have repeatedly warned that Venezuela's aging and damaged oil infrastructure will require years of rehabilitation and tens of billions of dollars in investment.
“It could take 2 to 4 years to get new greenfield facilities online in the Orinoco region,” Amy Jaffe, director of the Global Energy, Climate, and Sustainability Lab at New York University, said in an email. “Other places where there is no pipeline and other kinds of support infrastructure could take longer.”
Meanwhile, the national average price of regular gasoline rose overnight to $4.12 a gallon, according to the motor club AAA, up 93 cents from the same point last year.