Foreign Affairs

Chevron Drills Deeper Into Trump’s Venezuela Oil Push

Presidencia de Venezuela, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Oil giant Chevron is expected to expand its operations in Venezuela as the Trump administration deepens its push into the country’s vast oil sector, a U.S. official told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Chevron officials and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are expected to travel to Venezuela on Wednesday, where the company’s new investment is expected to be formally announced, according to the AP. Chevron is currently the only major U.S. oil company with a significant presence in Venezuela.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump moved to increase American involvement in Venezuela’s oil industry, including through a broader oil agreement with interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez.

The agreement was “reached in secrecy, with no public debate, and signed under duress,” Steve Hanke, a Johns Hopkins University  professor of applied economics who previously advised former Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The White House detailed a separate agreement Monday with North American Blue Energy Partners involving up to $100 billion in new investment to rebuild Venezuela’s deteriorating oil infrastructure.

Chevron, the Department of Energy, North American Blue Energy Partners and the Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

The agreement gives the company 100-year concessions to operate 17 Venezuelan oil fields containing approximately 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, according to Reuters.

“Caracas is a sunny place inhabited by shady characters who are connected to the current socialist government, and we do not know whether they are parties to the deal or to possible side deals,” Hanke told the DCNF. “Therefore, the deal is illegitimate and probably illegal.”

Chevron’s expected expansion marks another step in the Trump administration’s effort to reshape Venezuela following the U.S. operation that captured former socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in January. Trump said at the time that the U.S. would effectively “run” Venezuela until a transition could take place. He also pledged to send major American oil companies into the country to spend billions of dollars rebuilding its battered energy infrastructure.

Nearly five months later, Venezuela remained under his interim successor Rodriguez as the country sought to reopen itself to Washington, oil buyers and creditors. The Trump administration has pursued a three-phase plan for the country, though rebuilding Venezuela’s degraded oil sector could take years.

Venezuela’s oil sector has deep American roots, with U.S. companies playing a major role in developing the industry decades before socialist President Hugo Chávez brought much of it under state control.

Chevron’s presence in Venezuela has persisted through years of shifting U.S. policy toward the country’s oil industry.
The Biden administration allowed Chevron to negotiate with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA in 2022 before granting the company a license to operate there later that year.

The Trump administration initially moved to terminate Biden-era Venezuelan oil and gas licenses in 2025, but Chevron remained the only major U.S. oil company operating in the country as Washington pushed for greater American involvement in Venezuela’s vast oil sector in early 2026.