Commentary
The US oil giant may become the proof of concept to attract the capital needed for any eventual Venezuelan oil boom, says Liam Denning for Bloomberg Opinion.
Chevron logos are displayed at a gas station in Columbus, Mississippi, Oct 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Rogelio V Solis, File)
05 Sep 2026 06:00AM
NEW YORK: In a momentous week for Venezuela, Chevron delivered the sequel to the White House’s blockbuster oil deal. Except that it’s more of a prequel.While the US oil major’s new multibillion-dollar investment in Venezuela would appear to confirm that President Donald Trump’s own venture there will soon bring barrels flooding back into the global market, it actually serves to highlight the challenge of turning rhetoric into reality.Chevron announced on Wednesday (Sep 2) that its Petroindependencia joint venture with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company would invest more than US$7 billion in two new fields in the country’s Orinoco Belt. This should raise output by about 320,000 barrels of crude per day by 2031, roughly doubling expected production for this year.This follows straight after Trump’s announcement of “the biggest oil deal in world history”, whereby the US government would essentially form a joint venture of its own with local operator North American Blue Energy Partners, or NABEP, to develop 17 Venezuelan fields sitting atop 65 billion barrels.
