Chevron expands Venezuela operations with $7B investment, production push

Chevron is expanding its footprint in Venezuela under new agreements that call for more than $7 billion in investment over the next five years and aim to more than double production from its joint ventures in the country.

The oil giant said Wednesday that the agreements establish updated fiscal, commercial and legal terms for its Venezuelan joint ventures, creating conditions for additional investment, development and production growth.

Chevron expects the joint ventures to increase production to approximately 600,000 barrels per day, while keeping total costs below $20 per barrel. Production across Chevron’s three Venezuelan joint ventures has already increased 15% so far this year, the company said.

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A sign displays the price of regular gasoline fuel at a Chevron gas station in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (Kaylee Greenlee/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

As part of the latest agreements, Chevron’s Petroindependencia joint venture was assigned rights to develop the adjacent Carabobo-1 and Carabobo-2-South-A areas in Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt. 

The expansion builds on an April agreement that increased Chevron’s working interest in Petroindependencia to 49%. That deal also gave the Petropiar joint venture, in which Chevron holds a 30% interest, rights to develop the adjacent Ayacucho 8 area.

Oil pumps operate near Lake Maracaibo in Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela, on July 12, 2024. Decades of mismanagement, underinvestment and sanctions have contributed to the decline of Venezuela’s once-dominant oil industry. (Getty Images / Getty Images)

“With improved terms and additional acreage, we are strengthening a portfolio that we believe can deliver attractive low-cost oil growth, support energy supply and create differentiated long-term value,” Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth said in a statement.

The investment push comes amid a major shift in the U.S.-Venezuela relationship following the January U.S. military operation that captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. Maduro was brought to the U.S. to face federal drug-trafficking charges.

Cerro Negro heavy oil upgrader facility in the Orinoco Oil Belt near Cerro Negro, Venezuela. (Ed Lallo/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Separately, the Trump administration announced an oil agreement last month involving approximately 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan reserves. Under the arrangement, Venezuelan interim authorities granted North American Blue Energy Partners 100-year concessions covering 17 oil fields, while the U.S. government secured majority ownership and governance rights in the venture.

Chairman of the Board and CEO of Chevron Corporation, Mike Wirth, speaks during the 29th annual Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on May 4, 2026. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Against that backdrop, Chevron credited the Trump administration, including the U.S. Department of Energy, with helping facilitate conditions for further investment and growth in Venezuela.

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“Continued engagement between government and industry is essential to advancing projects that support energy security, economic growth and continued investment,” Wirth said.