Chevron Corp’s oil production in Venezuela has reached 100,000 barrels a day and could rise 50% this year, Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said on an earnings call on Friday.
The largest American oil company operates three projects in the country together with the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Since US President Joe Biden eased sanctions on Venezuela last year, Chevron has started taking so much crude out of the country that it had to store 600,000 barrels in the Bahamas this month. Chevron also sends some of the oil to its US refineries.
But Wirth cautioned that the company’s operations in the sanctions-hit nation depend on exemptions from the US government. “It’s not really a negotiation,” he said. “It’s their decision.”
