Chevron to expand operations in Venezuela as Trump tries tap's into the country's oil industry

Chevron is expanding its existing operations in Venezuela, the Houston-based company said Wednesday.

The announcement came days after the Trump administration unveiled a deal with a private oil firm and Venezuela that would give the United States access to 65 billion barrels of oil.

In an online statement posted this morning, Chevron says as part of a joint venture it plans to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years. This, the company says, will expand its production to approximately 600,000 barrels of oil per day.

Chevron is the largest foreign oil operator in Venezuela. The deal announced today expands its footprint at a time of political and economic uncertainty for Venezuela; the country has been run by an interim unelected president, Delcy Rodríguez, who came into office after the U.S. captured former President Nicolás Maduro in January.

Other U.S. oil companies have previously expressed hesitation about re-entering Venezuela after leaving it decades ago, with ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods calling the country "uninvestable" at a White House meeting in January.

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