Chevron commits $7 billion to doubling Venezuela oil output

Chevron is investing $7 billion in Venezuela to expand oil production, Fortune said. Chevron aims to double production from 300,000 to 600,000 barrels a day by 2031. The target’s 5-year horizon is not an established spending timetable.

Reuters said on 2 September that Chevron had announced planned investment of more than $7 billion through its Venezuelan joint ventures. Those agreements expand Petroindependencia, a Chevron joint venture, into 2 adjacent areas in Carabobo, in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt.

Production has already increased

Chevron has operated in Venezuela since 1923. The expansion follows the US capture and removal of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January 2026 and an oil reform approved that month that underpins changes to energy contracts.

Chevron’s output had already risen this year, alongside an increase in Venezuela’s overall production.

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said development in the additional areas would use existing facilities and pipelines, reducing the infrastructure needed compared with building at an entirely new site.

Wirth expects operations to fund further development

Wirth said the contractual terms had become more competitive. They include provisions on political stability and international arbitration—a way to settle disputes through arbitrators rather than national courts—comparable to protections where Chevron operates elsewhere.

Under the changed arrangements, Chevron rather than Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA will control the flow of its produced oil and its royalty and tax payments to the government.

Wirth expects the initial spending to be recovered quickly and the expansion then to become self-funding, with operations paying for further development. He described a repeatable drilling program whose pace Chevron could increase or reduce as market conditions warrant.