HOUSTON – Big Oil has often employed the “hang around” playbook: secure legal rights to a giant resource – and then, eventually, figure out how to produce it profitably. But few companies have taken it to the extremes of Chevron. 

For two decades, Chevron stayed in Venezuela while all its major peers quit after former President Hugo Chavez nationalised foreign assets atop the world’s largest oil reserves in the mid-2000s.

The Houston-based company endured US sanctions, accounting write-offs, arrests of its employees and accusations of collusion with a regime rife with corruption and human rights abuses.   

The payoff came on Sept 2: a landmark deal that will provide Chevron with billions of barrels of reserves, enough to last into the 2040s – and perhaps beyond.

The company plans to invest US$7 billion over the next five years through its joint venture partnerships in Venezuela. 

The deal is part of a US government-led push to revive the Latin American country’s oil industry. Executives from Chevron, GE Vernova Inc. and Eni SpA on Sept 2 joined US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez to unveil a wave of energy deals aimed at boosting  the nation’s crude production.

Wright said the deals represented “tens of billions” worth of investments.

Within five years, Chevron estimates it will be producing 600,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude per day at a cost of less than US$20 a barrel. Brent crude closed near US$95 a barrel on Sept 2. 

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