U.S. Energy Secretary Tours Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, Pledging Billions to Revive Oil Output

Forty days after a U.S. Delta Force operation extracted Nicolás Maduro from Caracas, his successor and America’s top energy official walked side by side through the tank farms of the Orinoco Belt. Energy Secretary Chris Wright toured Petropiar, a Chevron-PDVSA joint venture in southeastern Venezuela, capping a two-day visit that began with a reception at the Miraflores presidential palace. It was the first time in eight years that U.S. media had been allowed inside a Venezuelan oil field.

Wright announced that over $100 million would be invested to upgrade Petropiar alone, with plans to double its output within 18 months and multiply it fivefold in five years. He told NBC News that U.S.-controlled oil sales from Venezuela had already exceeded $1 billion, with short-term agreements bringing another $5 billion. The trip also included meetings with executives from Chevron, Repsol, and Maurel & Prom.

The ambition is to rehabilitate an industry that once produced three million barrels a day but now pumps roughly one million, after decades of mismanagement and U.S. sanctions. Venezuela’s National Assembly recently overhauled its hydrocarbon laws to grant foreign producers operational autonomy, and advanced plans to amnesty thousands of political prisoners.

But Wright’s optimism collides with sobering arithmetic. Rystad Energy estimates restoring output to 1990s levels would require $183 billion over 15 years. Economist Orlando Ochoa says production can rise by 300,000 barrels this year at best, reaching 1.3 million by December. A more ambitious 500,000-barrel increase would take two years under optimal conditions. The breakeven price for many Venezuelan projects sits near $80, while Brent crude hovers around $60.

The geopolitical subtext is blunt. Wright said Washington controls the flow of Venezuela’s dominant industry. Analysts see the push as a bid to displace China, Russia, and Iran from the Venezuelan energy sector. Rodríguez, who just weeks ago said Caracas would not accept orders from Washington, now calls it a partnership of mutual benefit. Wright conceded the U.S. does not recognize her government’s legitimacy and said elections would “quite likely” happen before the end of the second Trump term.

For now, the relationship rests on a stark asymmetry: Venezuela needs the investment, and Washington needs to show that removing Maduro was about more than oil.

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