- Chevron to receive two new oil fields in Western Venezuela soon
- Venezuela aims to boost foreign investment and revive oil production
- US lifted sanctions on Venezuelan crude after Maduro's capture
Chevron Corp. is set to expand its oil footprint in Venezuela, benefitting from its almost 20-year bet to remain in the country amid political and economic turmoil.
The government in Caracas will award the US oil major two additional oil fields in Western Venezuela as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified ahead of an official announcement.
Venezuela's plan to grant more acreage to Chevron, which Bloomberg first reported in February, comes amid a push to open up the nation's energy industry to foreign investment and revive production. Since US forces captured Venezuela's former President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, the Trump administration has lifted restrictions on outside investment and on the purchase of Venezuelan crude.
The US-backed effort to restore Venezuela's oil sector to its former position as one of the world's leading crude exporters has received additional impetus in recent weeks from the Iran war and the resulting squeeze on Middle East crude supply and global energy prices.
Chevron didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The imminent award of acreage to Chevron was reported earlier by Reuters, which said the company had agreed to return an offshore gas field to Venezuela as part of the deal. Reuters also reported that Shell Plc is on the cusp of signing an agreement to operate the Loran offshore gas field straddling the border between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
Chevron's involvement in Venezuela dates back more than a century. While some other foreign oil companies such as Shell and Repsol SA have kept a toehold in the country, US rivals Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips were pushed out after their assets were expropriated. Since sanctions were imposed on the country eight years ago, Chevron has received US Treasury waivers, allowing it to keep drilling.
Chevron holds four ventures in Venezuela: two in the Orinoco Belt and two in Zulia, the cradle of the country's oil industry. Combined, they account for almost 25% of the country's overall production of almost 1 million barrels a day.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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