Chevron is due in Caracas as Wright flies in to widen Orinoco access

A US official, speaking to reporters on 1 September under White House ground rules, said Chevron and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are expected in Venezuela on 2 September to announce an expansion of the company's operations. The briefing came days after President Donald Trump described a larger arrangement that would put a private operator, a Pentagon equity slice and a State Department offtake right onto Venezuelan crude.

Bloomberg reported that Chevron is closing a deal to add two giant fields in the Orinoco Belt. Reuters, citing sources in Houston and Caracas, said the package includes a migration of existing joint ventures into Venezuela's amended hydrocarbon law and an asset swap that would let the Petropiar heavy-crude project expand into the neighbouring Ayacucho 8 block. A second Orinoco area and a possible block in Monagas North, useful for diluent, were also in the talks.

Chevron declined to comment when Reuters asked. The company already accounts for about a fifth of Venezuelan output through joint ventures with PDVSA. Those ventures were producing about 260,000 barrels a day earlier in 2026. Chevron said in January it could raise output by about 50 percent in two years inside its current footprint. The Wednesday trip is about widening that footprint.

The other names on the same signing table

Reuters listed ONGC of India, GE Vernova, Eni and GeoPark among firms on track to sign final papers after months of talks. Most of those papers complete a six-month migration onto the new law, which gives foreign operators more control over fields, exports and sale proceeds. Some papers cover power projects rather than crude. The list was still being rewritten at the last minute, two sources said.

This track is separate from last week's political announcement of 100-year rights on 17 fields holding about 65 billion barrels, and from the NABEP structure in which the Pentagon would take 35 percent and the State Department a right to buy 20 percent of oil at cost. Chevron is the incumbent that stayed after Venezuela expropriated ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips in 2007. Its expansion is how Washington turns a political claim on the reserves into barrels that can actually move.

What "expand" has to mean in the Orinoco

Orinoco crude is extra-heavy. It needs diluent, upgraders and a long pipe to a port. Adding Ayacucho 8 to Petropiar only raises output if those three pieces grow with the acreage. A Monagas North block matters if it supplies the naphtha or light crude that thins the heavy stream. Without that, a larger map is just a larger map.

Venezuelan production has already risen by nearly 300,000 barrels a day since Nicolás Maduro's removal, according to Bloomberg-compiled figures. The Orinoco Belt itself was around 595,000 barrels a day in July. PDVSA has talked about 1.235 million from the belt by December. Chevron's share of that climb is the figure Wednesday's announcement has to justify.

Until the texts are published, the verified facts are narrower. Wright and Chevron are expected in Caracas on 2 September. Two Orinoco fields are in the draft. Petropiar-Ayacucho 8 is the expansion named by sources. ONGC and Eni are on a parallel signing list. The 100-year political deal and the Chevron operating deal are being sold as one story. They are two contracts, and only one of them has a plane attached to it for Wednesday.