Over a dozen deals expected, including Chevron's Orinoco Belt expansion. The U.S. wants to counter China and Russia. Announcements are expected Wednesday.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said companies are on the cusp of signing a series of deals that will put Venezuela on pace to rapidly expand its crude output.
"Several deals will be announced," Wright told reporters after arriving in Caracas on Tuesday night. "Those deals will lead to a more than doubling of Venezuelan oil production in the next few years."
Wright is scheduled to meet acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez during the visit. He is expected to announce more than a dozen agreements with energy companies on Wednesday. The largest is with Chevron Corp., which is significantly expanding its Venezuela operations with two giant oil fields in the Orinoco Belt.
The trip is intended to show that private companies are heeding President Donald Trump's call to ramp up Venezuelan crude production after the capture of ex-President Nicolás Maduro. Trump's Republican party faces pressure to lower U.S. gasoline prices, which have soared more than 40% this year on the Iran war, ahead of November midterm elections.
Trump officials have cast the effort to enlist oil companies from the U.S. and elsewhere to work in Venezuela as a way to limit the influence of Chinese and Russian companies in the region. Shell Plc, BP Plc, Spain's Repsol SA and Italy's Eni SpA also are expected to sign deals, Rodríguez said earlier this week on Venezuelan state television.
The announcements are separate from a plan Trump announced Friday for the U.S. to take control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's oil reserves in partnership with a company run by energy entrepreneur Alejandro Betancourt. Trump once called Venezuela the 51st U.S. state, and U.S. officials described the plan as an unparalleled modern-day intervention into its economy. The plan would create the world's second-largest private oil company by reserves and secure American petroleum supplies for decades, according to U.S. officials. It would also allow the U.S. to refill its depleted Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
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