Chevron will invest more than $7 billion over the next five years to expand its joint-venture operations in Venezuela, the company confirmed this week, as it works to more than double production in the country to roughly 600,000 barrels a day by 2031.
The oil major said output from its Venezuelan joint ventures has already risen 15% so far in 2026, building toward that target from about 280,000 barrels a day currently. Chevron said it has been assigned two additional oilfields in the Orinoco Belt, the region holding most of Venezuela's vast reserves of extra-heavy crude, and that it aims to keep total production costs below $20 a barrel as it ramps up.
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.
Mike Wirth, Chevron chairman and CEO
The expanded commitment follows a broader shift in Washington's posture toward Caracas this year, with the U.S. government and Venezuela's leadership reaching separate agreements that have eased restrictions on American companies operating in the country's oil sector. Chevron has operated in Venezuela for more than a century, and its joint ventures with state oil company PDVSA remain central to any recovery in the country's production, which has fallen far short of the roughly 3.2 million barrels a day Venezuela pumped at its peak in 1997.
Analysts who track the region note that a real production recovery faces steep obstacles regardless of the new investment pledge. Decades of underinvestment have left processing and export infrastructure in poor condition, and heavy-crude extraction in the Orinoco Belt requires specialized technology and expertise that atrophied during Venezuela's long isolation from Western oil markets and financing. Security guarantees for personnel and equipment remain another open question as operations expand.
For now, the deal gives Chevron a larger foothold in one of the world's largest crude reserve bases at a moment when global oil prices are already elevated, with Brent crude trading above $100 a barrel this week. Heavier Venezuelan grades are particularly suited to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries built to process them, meaning a successful ramp-up could reshape supply chains for American refiners even as the timeline for reaching Chevron's 600,000-barrel target stretches out to 2031.
