A top Chevron executive praised Venezuela’s oil assets as the oil company and its larger U.S. rival, Exxon Mobil, reported their lowest annual profits in years on Friday.
“The resource is very promising, and the fields do have a lot of room,” Eimear Bonner, Chevron’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.
She hewed closely to what one of her colleagues shared at an industry meeting at the White House a few weeks ago, reiterating that Chevron was prepared to increase production in Venezuela by 50 percent in the next two years under the right conditions.
Venezuela is likely to be a central topic later on Friday morning, when Exxon and Chevron are scheduled to host conference calls to discuss their 2025 results.
The Trump administration has been urging U.S. oil companies to pour at least $100 billion into the South American country after American forces removed the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, in early January.
Although American companies have started buying more of Venezuela’s oil, crude producers have been wary of committing large sums to a country that previously seized billions of dollars in foreign assets.
Chevron is in an unusual position for having stayed in Venezuela long after companies like Exxon left, and it is now the country’s largest private oil producer.
Its joint projects with Venezuela’s state oil company recently generated about a quarter of Venezuela’s production, based on data from Chevron and the International Energy Agency, though estimates vary widely.
“We would need additional authorizations beyond the authorizations that exist today that permit us to produce 250,000 barrels a day from the venture and get our debt repaid,” Ms. Bonner said.
Chevron’s operations in Venezuela make up a small share of its operating cash flow — as much as 2 percent — according to estimates from the investment bank TD Cowen.
Venezuela’s National Assembly approved legislation on Thursday that would give foreign oil companies more control over operations and potentially reduce what they owe in royalties and taxes to the country’s government.
Ms. Bonner, speaking soon after the legislation passed, said she would review the details. “Venezuela has significant potential, and this would maybe be an example of where they’re stepping toward being more competitive,” she said.
Part of the challenge for the Trump administration is that it is pushing oil companies back to Venezuela at a time when low oil prices have spurred many of them to pull back. In fact, global spending on oil and gas production and exploration is poised to fall about 15 percent this year, according to the research firm Bernstein.
Layer in the political and physical security risks involved, and Venezuela is “uninvestable,” Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive, said on Jan. 9.
“We’ve had our assets seized there twice, and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes,” Mr. Woods said.
That did not sit well with Mr. Trump, who later said he would “probably be inclined to keep Exxon out” of Venezuela.
Lower oil prices dented the company’s profit last year, which fell 14 percent to $28.8 billion, Exxon Mobil’s lowest since 2021. Fourth quarter net income fell about 15 percent, to $6.5 billion.
Chevron’s yearly earnings declined by a wider margin of 30 percent, to $12.3 billion. Net income for the final three months of the year fell about 14 percent to $2.8 billion.
Exxon’s stock price declined about 2 percent in premarket trading, and Chevron’s fell less than 1 percent.
Prices for oil and natural gas have rallied recently in response to very cold weather in much of the country, and as traders have weighed the risk that the United States might attack Iran.
It is important to remember that oil executives are not all of one mind. Even though many producers have been wary of committing to Venezuela, the companies that provide services to them, as well as those that process oil into gasoline and diesel, have expressed a lot of enthusiasm about doing more business with Venezuela.
Earlier this week, Lorenzo Simonelli, chief executive of the oil field service company Baker Hughes, described the opportunities in the country as “significant.”
Even so, increasing production will take a lot of work, he said. “We expect moderate production increases will require substantial investment in well integrity, off-grid power generation, equipment replacement, upgrades and services.”
Rebecca F. Elliott covers energy for The Times.
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