雪佛龙宣布70亿美元投资委内瑞拉，计划将产量翻倍至60万桶/日

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Listen on demand wherever you get your podcast or watch us live on YouTube. All right, US uh energy secretary Chris Wright is in Caracus today and is expected to announce more than a dozen agreements with energy companies. The largest is with Chevron, which is significantly expanding in Venezuela operations with two giant oil fields in the Oriano Orinino boat. We check in with Kevin Crowley. He's the senior oil reporter for Bloomberg News.

Uh he is based down there in the energy capital, Houston, Texas. Uh Kevin, thanks so much for joining us here. you know, when you talk to folks in your sphere there of the energy business, what do they think about this Chevron deal?

Well, first of all, it's a big it's a big it's a big deal. Um, I think the uh the first question is is how much oil is going to come to the market um immediately. And I think um I think it's it's it's it's going to come gradually. Um this is what what the CEO um Mike Worth told us um in a in a TV interview um earlier earlier today. So, so Chevron is is planning to double its uh oil production to about 600,000 barrels a day.

Going to spend about $7 billion uh with its joint venture partners doing that. Um but these are these are big big big projects um requiring lots of drilling, lots of heavy equipment, lots of pipeline capacity. Um um Venezuela has a lot of heavy oil which is difficult to process. So um these um these barrels are going to are going to come to the market kind of gradually. And what's what's interesting here is is that they are they are not going to be a direct replacement for the barrels that are currently stuck through the uh through the straight of moves.

Um so we're not seeing any relief in oil prices today.

Yeah, that's exactly right. So Kevin, what do we know about some of the assurances that Chevron may have received either from the Venezuelan government or the US government? Because that has always been a concern that boy, our assets, our investments can be nationalized overnight. And that's one of the many reasons that other majors left Venezuela and did not come back.

Right. Exactly. I mean, Venezuela's nationalized it soil industry twice in the last 50 years. Um, so I I put this question to to Chevron CEO Mike Worth um um in a uh in an interview and um he said he wouldn't go into the contract specifics, but he said there were very strong protections uh built built into those contracts um um with regard to to and I interpret that that to mean um um sort of legal protections but also um with regard to arbitration.

So if there is a dispute between uh between Chevron and and the Venezuelan government, this they would be arbitrated in perhaps um internationally as opposed to um in the country. So uh so Chevron Chevron seem seem pretty confident um that that that their money will be protected. Um now it is worth worth saying Chevron has a has a slightly different kind of risk tolerance for for this. Smith Chevron um was the one US oil major that stayed um in Venezuela after the nationalizations of the of the mid 2000s.

They've been there, you know, the last 20 years through all these sanctions and on on again off off again um OFAC licenses and that. So they are they are in a slightly sort of sort of different position. Um we haven't seen Exxon go in uh we haven't seen Konico Phillips go in. These were two big US oil companies that were nationalized um yeah under the under the Chavez regime.

Yeah, that's kind of where I want to go. Kevin, do we think that once maybe Exxon and and the others get a look at this this contract or at least talk to the Chevron management, they might get a level of comfort that they will go back in, do you think?

Well, that's certainly that's certainly what the US uh the US government hopes that that all these deals will will create yeah a level of confidence for for others to follow. I think there will be other others to follow. Um the problem is is these fields are getting are getting napped. They're getting getting snapped up quickly. Um and Exxon um for example doesn't want to do anything small. So if they want to go in they'll they'll want they want a large number of fields and they want to do things on a on a big scale.

Um and um yeah the question the question is what's left. Um so um so yeah so it remains to be seen um who else who else will go in but uh but certainly um with these with these big companies now committing real dollars. This is the first time we've seen real dollars being committed to uh to Venezuela. There is a there is a degree of confidence um around around the country.

What are your sources telling you Kevin about the straight of Hormuz? How much oil do we think is actually getting through on a daily basis? We heard from the Treasury I mean the energy secretary a big big number. What are you hearing?

Yes. So he was say he was saying on Monday 17 million barrels uh got through got through the straight of four moves. Um that's certainly a high. uh we don't think that's that's happening um every day um at all. Um there's still there's still major constraints. I mean we've seen we've seen a fair bit of um uptick in uh conflict. I mean just the just this week and um it's interesting this it seems to be a tone around around the administration this this week.

Certainly, Secretary Secretary Bessant and Chris Wright have been to been have been work have been emphasizing this line around workarounds um emphasizing, you know, we we're going to build pipelines and there's going to be um um other ways of of getting around the straight of moves. I think Bessant said earlier today that straight off moves wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't be very important uh in the oil industry in the future.

So, just wonder if this if this this um um they're starting starting to kind of think that this this conflict may be maybe maybe much more um um longer term and this might be the uh the new normal for the strait.

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There are a lot of people that don't like higher energy prices. And I guess if you think about it, if you put gas in your truck or diesel in your truck or jet fuel in your plane and that kind of stuff, if you're a transportation company, this is a squeeze, I think. Let's check in with Lee Klascal. He's a senior transport logistics and shipping analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. He also hosts a weekly podcast, Bloomberg Intelligence Talking Transports.

Lee, what are your companies telling you? Railroad companies, trucking companies, air uh transport. I mean, the tankers, they all consume a lot of fuel. They certainly do. It's usually their highest cost, and they're able to pass a lot of that cost on uh through fuel search charges. The problem is the volatility in fuel prices can be sometimes a drag on margins, especially when uh prices for fuel are rising quickly. Uh trucking for example, you know, their fuel search charges resets every week.

Uh and railroads, it's anywhere between a week and 60 days depending on the type of freight. Um but you know what we are, you know, while it does cover the miles that they travel, you know, as you probably know, trucking companies sometimes they have to travel from point A to point B to pick up a load and that's obviously not covered under their fuel search charge most of the time. So, it does it does have a uh you know, a negative impact uh to to margins, but you know, I think the knock-on effect obviously is the impact to consumers.

It's