Let me be clear. This isn't about oil. BTW-Go f-ck yourself!

Chevron Charts a New Path in Venezuela to Unlock Vast Oil Reserves

The country says its proved oil reserves top 300 billion barrels which, if true, would make its bounty the world’s largest

By Collin Eaton, WSJ

Jan. 3, 2026 1:23 pm ET

President Trump said U.S. oil companies would spend billions of dollars in Venezuela to fix its oil infrastructure after the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Chevron is positioned to rejuvenate Venezuela’s oil business, being the sole major U.S. company remaining in the country.

Chevron, as the only major U.S. company in Venezuela, finds itself in prime position to deliver on President Trump’s pledge Saturday to rejuvenate the Latin American country’s oil business.

The U.S. capture of strongman Nicolás Maduro has Chevron charting a new course as it clings to its position in some of the world’s most potent oil fields. The oil giant has spent years navigating the country’s political and economic turmoil while its rivals pulled out—or were kicked out of the country by Venezuelan leaders.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.

Chevron said in a statement Saturday that it is focused on the safety of its employees and the integrity of its assets in the country.

The opportunity is huge. Venezuela’s government says its proved oil reserves top 300 billion barrels which, if true, would make its bounty the world’s largest.

But following years of the country’s economic turmoil and little investment in maintaining its oil infrastructure, Venezuela currently pumps just 900,000 barrels of oil a day; Chevron is responsible for about one-third of that production. Venezuela once pumped as much as 3 million barrels a day in 2013, according to state-run company Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PdVSA.

Trump said in his press conference that Venezuela stole oil property from the U.S., a reference to former President Hugo Chávez’s move to nationalize assets of Exxon Mobil in the mid-2000s. Exxon later sued the Venezuelan government for $12 billion. ConocoPhillips, which also pulled out of the country, sued for more than $20 billion. The companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Outside of Chevron, other big oil companies interested in re-entering Venezuela will almost certainly take time to evaluate the situation, analysts said.

“Oil companies always want oil, and Venezuela has a lot of it,” said José Ignacio Hernández, a law professor, consultant and public-debt expert at Aurora Macro Strategies. “But they need political stability, which requires more than just removing Maduro. The situation is still ongoing.”

The Chevron Corp. logo is visible behind a window with two potted poinsettias.

Chevron and its joint ventures employ about 3,000 people in Venezuela. Matias Delacroix/Bloomberg News

Chevron and its joint ventures employ about 3,000 people in Venezuela. The company pumps roughly 300,000 barrels of oil a day from three major projects across Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt in the east and one near Lake Maracaibo in the west.

The Houston company has continued to ship Venezuelan crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast even after Washington imposed a blockade on blacklisted oil tankers traveling mostly to China and Cuba.