Trump pushes U.S. oil investment since Maduro’s January ouster
Chevron said Wednesday it will invest more than $7 billion in Venezuela, more than doubling its production in the country’s oil fields, the company announced.
The company said it entered multiple agreements with Venezuela establishing updated terms with its joint ventures to support future investment, project development and production growth. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Chevron was nearing a deal to make a significant investment in the country’s oil fields.
President Trump said last week that the U.S. had reached a deal with Venezuela to secure control of a large share of the Latin American country’s oil reserves, the Journal reported. The agreements with Chevron follow those remarks.
Venezuela’s oil industry fell into widespread disarray following years of mismanagement during the regimes of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, according to the Journal. The Journal reported that, since the ousting of Maduro in January, Trump has pushed U.S. oil companies to invest in the country in a bid to shore up oil production.
Other companies have remained hesitant to re-enter the country, the Journal reported, even as the Trump administration has continued its push for expanded investment there.