SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Chevron announced today that it is doubling oil production in Venezuela over the next five years. This comes almost nine months after the U.S. seized and arrested President Nicolás Maduro and after the Trump administration has been encouraging U.S. oil companies to invest more in the country. We're joined now by NPR's energy and climate correspondent Julia Simon. Hey, Julia.
JULIA SIMON, BYLINE: Hello, Scott.
DETROW: So Chevron made this announcement in Caracas today. What exactly is the company up to?
SIMON: So today, acting President Delcy Rodríguez and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright - they were up there, seated at these pink and gold chairs. There were U.S. and Venezuelan flags. Chevron's CEO, Mike Wirth, stood before them, and he said that the company will be investing more than $7 billion, doubling their Venezuelan oil production over five years to 600,000 barrels of oil a day. Chevron has been in Venezuela for over a century, Scott, and they say they want to help build its future.
DETROW: I mean, the number there - 600,000 barrels - sounds like a lot. Put it into context, though. How big of an increase is this for the country?
SIMON: Yeah. Energy experts say it is and it isn't a big increase. Venezuela is sitting on some of the biggest oil reserves in the world, Scott. It's producing about 1.2 million barrels a day. So this increase - it's not nothing. But Jaime Brito - he's executive director of refining and oil products for Dow Jones Energy - he thinks it could be a lot more.
JAIME BRITO: Any barrel is important, but from the sheer size of the Venezuelan reserves, I think it's still a marginal contribution considering what it could potentially be produced now.
SIMON: So to increase Venezuelan production, there will need to be more foreign oil companies coming in. President Trump has been trying to get more U.S. oil companies in there, but it's unclear if they will come.
DETROW: Why is that, though? I mean, you mentioned the massive oil reserves. Why aren't these other U.S. companies increasing investments like Chevron is?
SIMON: Well, Scott, U.S. companies - they've been burned financially in Venezuela before. Earlier this year, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods - you may remember - he famously called Venezuela uninvestable (ph). Under acting President Delcy Rodríguez, the Venezuelan government had this new hydrocarbon law. They now have better terms for foreign companies. Chevron was clearly pleased, obviously, with this announcement today. They're increasing production. But energy experts I've spoken with say it's unclear if U.S. companies like ExxonMobil will want to come back to Venezuela, given the lingering political and economic uncertainties.
DETROW: Yeah. When we think about this planned boost in oil production, is it fair to say it could have implications for the planet, as well?
SIMON: That is definitely fair - big implications. I talked to Paasha Mahdavi about this. He's a political science professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. He studies the oil industry, and he says these Chevron assets are some of the most planet-heating oil assets on Earth.
PAASHA MAHDAVI: This expansion is effectively a carbon bomb. And so if Chevron does produce this field, that's roughly 52 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year additional. That is a huge number.
SIMON: Mahdavi says that's equivalent to the emissions of about 12 million gas-powered cars. Chevron did not respond to our question about the potential planet-heating impacts of this oil expansion.
DETROW: And this news comes on the heels of another oil deal the Trump administration announced. Is that right?
SIMON: That's right. That would be the 17 oil fields the U.S. government says it's going to develop with a private Venezuelan oil company. That is unrelated to this announcement.
DETROW: NPR's Julia Simon, thanks so much.
SIMON: Thanks, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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