U.S. should reconsider Chevron’s oil deal in Venezuela, Rubio says

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s secretary of state-nominee Marco Rubio said the U.S. should reconsider Chevron Corp.’s sanctions waiver that allows the oil giant to operate in Venezuela.

The Biden administration “got played” in negotiations with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that encouraged him to hold elections in return for granting oil licenses, Rubio said during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday. The elections turned out to be “completely fake” while Maduro “leveraged migration against us to get those concessions,” he said.

“Now they have these general licenses where companies like Chevron are actually providing billions of dollars of money into the regime’s coffers, and the regime kept none of the promises that they made,” Rubio said. “So all that needs to be re-explored.”

Chevron is the only U.S. oil producer left in Venezuela and was producing about 180,000 bpd from the South American nation as of mid-2024. The Biden administration granted Chevron a wider range of production and crude sales starting in 2022, but the oil giant has said it won’t commit additional capital due to the short-term nature of its license from the U.S. Treasury. Its efforts were primarily focused on repairing wells and facilities and recouping debt owed by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.

Chevron didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has consistently said it conducts business in compliance with both U.S. and Venezuelan law.