Chevron announces deal to expand its oil production in Venezuela

Chevron announced early Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to expand its oil production in Venezuela.

Chevron said that it has been assigned additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt, where it has an established position. Joint venture plans include investing more than $7 billion over the next five years and increasing production to approximately 600,000 barrels a day compared to 2026.

“Chevron’s history in Venezuela spans more than a century, and our expanded position reflects our confidence in the country’s deep resource potential and its ability to compete for investment within our portfolio for decades,” CEO Mike Wirth said in a statement . “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 is the only major U.S. oil company that currently has operations in Venezuela. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left in 2007.

The agreement is expected to be separate from the Trump administration’s own recent announcement that it would team up with Venezuelan oil company North American Blue Energy Partners and gain access to some 21 percent of the country’s estimated oil deposits.

But it does come after the Trump administration encouraged U.S. oil companies to operate in Venezuela.

During a White House meeting earlier this year , Chevron Vice Chair Mark Nelson indicated that his firm sees a path forward for increasing its production from its existing infrastructure in Venezuela, but at the time he did not commit to building new projects.

Chevron may not be the only company to expand operations in Venezuela. Over the weekend, Interim President Delcy Rodríguez said that deals were also in the works with BP, Shell, Repsol and Eni.

–The Associated Press contributed to this report