By Georgina McCartney
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Chevron, the only U.S. oil producer now working in Venezuela’s oilfields, has not held any discussions with President-elect Donald Trump’s team over the company’s operations in the country, CEO Michael Wirth said on Friday.
In 2019, the first Trump administration imposed sweeping sanctions on state-oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela aimed to curb its oil exports and force a change in governments. But Chevron has been allowed since 2022 to export oil to recoup unpaid dividends from joint venture partners.
Chevron aims to support U.S. policy on Venezuela while providing a better future to Venezuelans, Wirth said in remarks to think tank Atlantic Council.
“We are trying to hang in there, work with our government,” Wirth said.
“As other companies have left Venezuela, they’ve been replaced, by and large, with companies from two countries, Russia and China and if we were to leave, that, no doubt, is where the operations that we’re involved with would likely end up as well,” he added.
The easing of restrictions on Chevron and other oil firms came under the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and it is unclear what the incoming Trump administration’s policy will be.
Oil shipments last month to the U.S. from Venezuela by Chevron under a 2022 authorization from the Biden administration were 238,000 barrels per day.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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