Chevron Expands Venezuela Oil Position With $7 Billion-Plus Five-Year Investment Plan

Chevron has expanded its oil position in Venezuela under new agreements that give its joint ventures updated fiscal, commercial and legal terms and add acreage in the Orinoco Belt. The company said the revised framework supports joint-venture plans to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years and more than double production to about 600,000 barrels a day compared with 2026.

The production and spending targets are plans rather than completed investment or realized output. Chevron also said the Venezuelan portfolio has total costs below $20 a barrel, a figure that helps explain why the company is seeking additional heavy-oil growth even as the operating environment remains shaped by U.S. sanctions rules and political risk.

The most immediate acreage change is at Petroindependencia, where a Chevron subsidiary owns 49%. Under the September 2 agreements, that joint venture received rights to develop the adjacent Carabobo-1 and Carabobo-2-South-A areas. Chevron described the two sites as greenfield additions to an existing extra-heavy oil footprint in the Orinoco Belt.

New Carabobo acreage builds on an April reshaping of Chevron’s portfolio

The September expansion follows an asset swap announced in April that concentrated Chevron more heavily in Venezuelan oil. In that earlier agreement with Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. and related entities, Chevron increased its working interest in Petroindependencia by 13.21 percentage points to 49%. The Petropiar joint venture, in which Chevron holds a 30% interest, also received rights to develop the nearby Ayacucho 8 area.

Chevron gave up other Venezuelan interests as part of the April exchange. Its subsidiaries agreed to transfer 60% and 100% operated interests in the offshore Plataforma Deltana Block 2 and Block 3 gas licenses, respectively, along with a 25.2% non-operated interest in the Petroindependiente joint venture in western Venezuela. The change moved the company away from those assets while increasing its exposure to extra-heavy crude projects in the Orinoco Belt.

That concentration now spans several producing areas. Chevron’s Venezuela operations page lists a 39.2% interest in Petroboscan in Zulia state, a 30% interest in Petropiar in the Orinoco Belt and a 49% interest in Petroindependencia. The company said production across its three Venezuelan joint ventures had risen 15% year to date by September 2, although it did not disclose a current combined barrels-per-day figure in the announcement.

The distinction between joint-venture output and Chevron’s consolidated production is important. In its second-quarter Form 10-Q, Chevron said its Venezuelan assets are operated by independent affiliates and have been accounted for as non-equity investments since 2020. Income is recognized when cash is received, and Venezuelan production and reserves are not included in Chevron’s reported production and reserve totals.

Five-year plan targets about 600,000 barrels a day

The scale of the new plan is substantial relative to the company’s recent Venezuela footprint. Chevron said the enhanced terms and added acreage underpin more than $7 billion of planned joint-venture investment over five years, with production expected to rise to approximately 600,000 barrels a day. The company did not break out how much of that spending would be contributed directly by Chevron, its partners or individual joint ventures, so the full amount should not be treated as a standalone Chevron corporate capital commitment.

Development economics are another part of the pitch. Chevron put total costs for the Venezuela portfolio at less than $20 a barrel and described the country as a source of low-cost oil growth. Extra-heavy crude projects can require substantial development, upgrading, blending and logistics infrastructure, so the cost figure is relevant to the company’s claim that the expanded position can compete for capital within its global portfolio.

The new Carabobo rights also extend a strategy of adding acreage next to existing operations. Ayacucho 8, obtained through the April agreement, sits adjacent to Petropiar, while Carabobo-1 and Carabobo-2-South-A are next to Petroindependencia’s current footprint. Proximity can create development efficiencies by allowing new wells and facilities to connect with established operating areas, although Chevron has not provided project-level capital budgets or a timetable for first production from the newly assigned Carabobo acreage.

Chevron has operated in Venezuela since 1923, giving it a longer history in the country than most international producers still active there. That history does not remove execution risk. The company’s SEC filing warns that changes in Venezuelan political conditions, government policy, sanctions, fiscal terms and the ability of joint-venture partners to fund development can affect operations and financial results.

U.S. sanctions authorization remains a key operating condition

The investment plan also sits inside a recently updated U.S. sanctions framework. On August 27, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 50C, which lists Chevron among the companies authorized to conduct specified oil and gas sector activity in Venezuela, subject to the license’s conditions and exclusions. The revised authorization replaced General License 50B less than a week before Chevron announced the expanded acreage and investment plan.

GL 50C permits covered oil and gas operations involving the Venezuelan government, PdVSA and qualifying PdVSA entities, but it does not remove the sanctions framework. Contracts with the Venezuelan government or PdVSA entities must provide for dispute-resolution proceedings in the United States, United Kingdom, France or Singapore. Certain monetary payments to blocked persons must go to the Foreign Government Deposit Funds or another account directed by the U.S. Treasury, while local taxes, permits and fees are treated separately.

The license also imposes reporting requirements. A company using GL 50C must provide the U.S. government with details on the parties, values, dates and relevant payments within 10 days after the first covered activity and then every 90 days while the activity continues. The authorization also contains exclusions involving blocked vessels and certain counterparties, and it does not override requirements administered by other federal agencies.

Chevron’s latest quarterly filing underscores how closely its Venezuela business is tied to U.S. authorization. The company said crude liftings restarted in 2023 after licenses were issued, that limited deliveries from Venezuelan affiliates to the United States continued through January 2026, and that current authorizations support deliveries to the United States and international markets. It also cautioned that geopolitical developments involving Venezuela could still affect future operations and results.

Chief Executive Mike Wirth credited engagement by the U.S. administration and the Department of Energy with helping create conditions for additional investment. The five-year spending plan and 600,000-barrel-a-day production objective therefore combine a commercial expansion with a regulatory framework that remains central to how Chevron and its partners can develop, market and receive proceeds from Venezuelan oil.