Chevron Commits $7bn to Venezuela Expansion Amid US Sanctions Lift
Chevron has signed updated agreements with Venezuela to invest over $7bn in the country's joint ventures over the next five years. The deal commits Chevron to assigning additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt and revises fiscal, commercial, and legal terms for its operations there.
The agreement is expected to more than double Chevron's production in Venezuela to around 600,000 barrels a day, according to CEO Mike Wirth. Chevron is the only major US oil company still running a large-scale operation in Venezuela, having stayed despite years of US sanctions that pushed rivals out.
Chevron's ability to fund the commitment is backed by its recent quarterly earnings, which rose to $12.07bn from $2.21bn in the previous quarter. The company's shares have also risen 8.39% over the past 20 trading days, reaching a 20-day high of $212.50.
The deal follows Venezuela's National Assembly approving an arrangement giving Washington's Defense and State Departments a stake in roughly a fifth of the country's oil reserves through a new US-backed entity. Chevron's $7bn commitment is smaller in scale than this separate government-linked venture, but gives the company a head start in a country where it already has decades of operating history and infrastructure.