CARACAS, Venezuela — U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright met with Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodríguez on Wednesday at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.
Wright and Rodríguez were overseeing the signing of deals with Chevron and Italy’s Eni to increase oil output at Venezuela’s oil Orinoco Belt.
“Today is a transformative day,” Wright said during his speech at the palace. He later told reporters that the “deals will lead to a more than doubling of Venezuelan oil production in the next few years.”
Chevron announced plans to invest more than $7 billion through 2031 with the aim of increasing production in the Orinoco Belt to about 600,000 barrels a day. ENI announced a 25-year contract with rights to explore the Junin 5 oil field.
“Chevron’s history in Venezuela spans more than a century, and our expanded position reflects our confidence in the country’s deep resource potential,” Mike Wirth, Chevron’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.
President Donald Trump and Rodríguez recently announced another deal to increase oil production. It involves the Pentagon and North American Blue Energy Partners, owned by Venezuelan billionaire Alejandro Betancourt, who has been the subject of money laundering probes in the U.S., Switzerland and Spain.
Betancourt hasn’t faced any charges. The Venezuelan National Assembly approved the deal to give NABEP — in which the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital has a 35% ownership stake — 100-year rights over 17 oil fields.
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