US: Venezuela Oil Output Could More Than Double

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday after arriving in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, that new agreements between Venezuela and international oil companies would more than double the country’s crude output over the next few years.

Wright’s visit is his second to Venezuela since US forces seized the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, in January.

Companies expected to sign agreements on new energy projects this week include US-based Chevron and GE Vernova, Italy’s Eni and India’s ONGC.

Under a separate deal backed by the Trump administration, US firm North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) would receive a 100-year lease on 17 Venezuelan oilfields holding an estimated 65 billion barrels of reserves. According to a US official, many of the fields were until recently controlled by China and Russia.

Wright also said US gasoline prices should fall in the coming weeks as a result of the Trump administration’s moves to ease regulations on refiners. Limited refining capacity, he added, remained the biggest constraint on gasoline and diesel prices.

Venezuelan oil production, which exceeded three million barrels per day in the late 1990s, has hovered between 1.1 million and 1.2 million barrels per day in recent months.

(Reuters, max)