U.S. oil imports from Venezuela hit 9-year high as Chevron invests $7 billion
Venezuelan crude surged 237% in six months to 782,000 barrels per day, with Chevron leading U.S. corporate expansion into the country's energy sector.
What to know
- U.S. Venezuelan crude imports surged 237% in six months to 782,000 barrels per day, the highest level since 2017.
- Chevron plans to invest $7 billion to nearly double Venezuelan production to 600,000 barrels per day at sub-$20 extraction costs.
- Trump administration will use Venezuelan oil to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, adding official government demand.
- Online discourse is split between those viewing the investment as mutually beneficial development and those seeing it as resource extraction under coercive political conditions.
The dispute Whether this represents economic revival of a collapsed state or naked imperial resource extraction backed by military intervention and coercive governance. · positions read across 38 posts and comments
This investment benefits everyone—it revives Venezuela's economy, protects investor assets through U.S. law, and ends Maduro-era mismanagement.
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“Venezuela cannot nationalize the oil companies again. The agreement signed is governed by US law...Disputes go to U.S. courts under U.S. law.”
ConferenceFull9068 · Reddit ↗
This is resource extraction under coercive conditions—the U.S. replaced a ruler and forced resource deals at gunpoint, with profits flowing to American companies and shareholders, not Venezuelans.
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“They kept the regime in place. The US illegally invaded another country, replaced the ruler by one who submits to them and now had them sign a "deal" at gunpoint to allow them to plunder their resources.”
dEm3Izan · Reddit ↗
The deal is unprecedented corruption and brazen in its scope, representing a departure from historical norms even for U.S. foreign policy.
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“Truly disgusting. I have family of all political stripes R and D. They all say they've seen nothing like this in their entire lifetimes, many are 70+ yo boomers.”
Sufficient_Habit5091 · Reddit ↗
“Chevron isn't merely watching Venezuela's oil industry recover. It is helping drive the recovery.”
24/7 Wall St analyst, Financial analyst · Yahoo Finance ↗
Chevron Major oil producer investing in Venezuela
President Trump U.S. administration official
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlespostscomments
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Analysis identifies Chevron as biggest winner from Venezuelan oil surge
Financial analysts highlight Chevron's strategic positioning to capitalize on the Venezuelan oil recovery, noting the company's ability to process Venezuelan heavy crude at U.S. refineries operating at 97% utilization. Chevron's broader financial strength—$70 billion in Q2 revenue and $15.4 billion adjusted free cash flow—supports the $7 billion Venezuelan investment.
“Over the past six months, Venezuelan imports have increased by 550,000 barrels per day, or 237%, while the three-month average reached 626,000 barrels per day.”
— U.S. Energy Information Administration, Federal energy data agency · source -
1 outlet U.S. Oil Imports From Venezuela Just Exploded to a 9-Year High — Chevron Could Be the Biggest Winner
first by Yahoo Finance, 2d ago
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you mean the CIA front company that was doing drug trafficking? the entire claim was so low effort and an insult to people who can actually read. https://thegrayzone.com/2026/01/05/indictment-maduro-cia-network-witness/ Cartel of the Suns: created by the CIA, weaponized by the DOJ In the original indictment of Maduro, the DOJ explicitly accused…
2 more of the top 3 · 38 posts in this stretch
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Rodriguez clearly sold Maduro out. One of the key parts of intelligence gathering is figuring out who is corrupt ("swayable") or able to be blackmailed and to what degree. This is why a key aspect of a security clearance is to vet those people out as much as possible. In the United States for example, it's not like they believe that marijuana use…
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Venezuela cannot nationalize the oil companies again. The agreement signed is governed by US law. That means adjudicated in US courts, and if necessary enforced by US military. What makes this agreement different is that investors do not have to trust Venezuela itself. They can trust the outside institutions Venezuela has agreed to rely on…
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background
U.S. Venezuelan crude imports reach 782,000 barrels per day — U.S. imports of Venezuelan crude jumped 183,000 barrels per day in the week ended September 11, reaching 782,000 barrels per day according to the Energy Information Administration—the highest weekly total since August 2017. Over the past six months, Venezuelan imports increased 550,000 barrels per day, or 237%.
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background
Chevron announces $7 billion Venezuela investment plan — Chevron announced updated agreements covering its Venezuelan joint ventures, including additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt. The company plans to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years and expects production to more than double to approximately 600,000 barrels per day, with production costs below $20 per barrel.
What people are saying 21 voices from 1 site · best of 38 · verbatim
- How will Venezuelan citizens benefit directly from the oil revenue, and what governance ensures it doesn't repeat patterns of regime capture?
- What role did military intervention or political pressure play in securing these investment agreements?
- Today
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Lol yeah sure buddy they claim that but nobody in Venezuela thinks they did anything but kill protestors and take oil money while letting it go to shit
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> both Chavez and Maduro have done a TREMENDOUS amount for their people Hold up: Explain that. The Venezuelan economy is in the trash because of these guys.
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Blatant corruption, geopolitical issues, and mismanagement aside (which I know is a lot), we didn't import much Venezuelan oil for the last decade. 782,000 barels per day is about 22,000,000 barrels a month. Here is a chart of oil imports from Venezuela according to the EIA . So our current seized oil amounts to about half the export numbers they…
- Yesterday
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That's been debunked - per US own records. The US supported Pol Pot while he was in power. https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2015/05/29/wikileaks-us-supported-khmer-rouge-vietnam-ussr/ Formerly classified 1978 diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks show that the US government supported the Khmer Rouge, in order to maintain “stability” in Cambodia…
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All the talk about us idiot Americans worried about paying $70 for a tank of gas instead of $50, our “war” in Iran and all the Donald’s missteps and yapping.. people forget we literally waltzed into Venezuela, snatched their leader and are now taking THEIR oil with countless American companies making millions/billions off of it and no one mentions…
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fyi immigrants from countries the US has couped tend to be the worst people of their countries, as in they were exploiters that had their shit taken away. This is certainly true for Cubans and Venezuelans.
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yes, he did a lot for his people and no, CIA propaganda isn't real. you can't just use atrocity propaganda against any country you don't like. that's not how shit works.
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And I just know if/when democrats take back control they will let all of these criminals get away with it in the interest of "healing the country" or whatever
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Why is that the capacity? Is that all they can get from the ground? All they can transport? US can definitely refine more than that.
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Read Venezuela history from 1958 to 1990 they had oil money and spent it like drunken sailors ruining the country. Then continued to spend like drunk sailors when the money ran out and destroyed the country.
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Dumb question possibly: why not build capable reineries in nearby Guyana (a US ally) and refine Venezuelan there in addition to the oil they recently discovered in Guyana itself?
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Awful obviously but they're talking about US in their lifetimes. They've never seen this level of blatant and brazen corruption.
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"Used informally" incorrectly, literally the opposite of its actual meaning. The word you should have used is figuratively . Not a literal drop in the bucket, a figure of speech drop in the bucket.
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You mean to say the winners are American companies and their shareholders while the people who miss out are the Venezuelean people? Almost as if the location of the oil isnt relevant
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Literally is an adverb that traditionally means in a strict, exact, or actual sense, but it is also widely used informally as an intensifier for exaggeration. Don’t you look dumb.
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This is sooooo comically wrong lol. Venezuelan crude is insanely cheap to extract. Try ~$20/BBL. It’s cheap and easy to transport by ship to gulf coast refineries already set up for it.
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Truly disgusting. I have family of all political stripes R and D. They all say they've seen nothing like this in their entire lifetimes, many are 70+ yo boomers. It's truly unprecedented.
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Are you talking about the Venezuelan issued licenses for gold refining or the transfer of Venezuelan gold ( that they still own) from London to the US to secure Venezuelan loans? How about the billions in investment flooding in now companies feel it’s safe their assets won’t get seized like Chavez did and started this whole mess? Have you ever…
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So, why are all these oil companies announcing investments in Venezuela? Continental Resources, Exxon, Chevron, and smaller ones? Are they all idiots?
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It's the perfect crime. US taxpayers bear the cost of the Iran war while companies like Chevron profit from being able to sell low production cost crude at high prices. Trump and his cronies will get plenty of kickbacks. And absolutely nothing will be done about this as the world moves on to the next topic to be angry about.
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They kept the regime in place. The US illegally invaded another country, replaced the ruler by one who submits to them and now had them sign a "deal" at gunpoint to allow them to plunder their resources. The US has always done this but this is a blatant and naked instance of this.