Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Venezuela’s national energy production will more than double by the end of 2027, crediting the January 3 U.S. military operation that removed Nicolás Maduro from power for opening the door to a major expansion of the country’s oil sector.
“Chevron is going to more than double their energy production. In fact, that national energy production in Venezuela will more than double by the end of next year from the intervention on January 3rd this year,” Wright told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas.
U.S. forces carried out Operation Absolute Resolve on Jan. 3, capturing Maduro and his wife, Flores. War Secretary Pete Hegseth has described the action as a “massive joint military and law enforcement raid” that lasted less than 30 minutes.
Wright framed the operation as a break from decades of failed diplomatic pressure on the Venezuelan government.
“You had 25 years of communist dictatorship. The standard of living has just plummeted in Venezuela. Eight million Venezuelans fled. About a million of them, and not all of them good actors, came to the United States of America. People tried to beg, borrow, bribe, anything they could to change the Venezuelan government. No luck,” Wright said. “President Trump is an out-of-the-box, bold foreign policy leader.”
“A brief military operation, arrest two criminals, and now we have leverage over the government. It’s an existing government. Are they perfect? No. But we have a lot of leverage,” Wright said.
Chevron has secured an investment of more than $7 billion over five years and plans to more than double its Venezuelan oil production to 600,000 barrels per day, according to the company’s press release.
Venezuela holds more than 300 billion barrels of crude reserves, roughly 20% of the world’s total. Despite controlling an estimated 17% of global reserves, the country produces only about 1% of world output after years of political instability and crumbling infrastructure gutted its energy industry.
Wright said the administration wants to shift the center of global energy production toward the Western Hemisphere, with the U.S. at the center alongside major producers Canada, Guyana and Mexico supplying more of the world’s oil and gas. Millions of barrels of new Venezuelan production are expected to move through U.S. refineries and be produced using American rigs and infrastructure, which the White House says would create thousands of American jobs.
The push comes as gasoline prices climb amid disruptions tied to the Iran conflict. The average U.S. price for regular gasoline rose to about $4.22 a gallon Wednesday, according to AAA, up from roughly $3.19 a year earlier.
“We’re solving a 47-year conflict with Iran. We cannot have a nuclear-armed Iran. This is a nation sounding death to America and doing everything they can to implement it. But we’ve massively grown United States natural gas exports, good for our economy, good for the world economy,” Wright said.
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