Valero will trade Chevron crude in Aruba

Chevron's return to Venezuela continues as the hot topic in local economics and politics. Exiles monetize income by speaking horrible claims about Chevron. They usually beg Donald Trump's government to revoke newly conceded petroleum license. We should also remember that about a month ago, an additional license was also provided for gas exploration, which should promote cooperation between Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana for development of Platform Deltana and Mariscal Paria gas fields, along with a number of Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana offshore deposits: in what is probably the hottest oil and gas region in the planet. Nevertheless, Venezuelan journalists in exile pretend to make a living by forcing Venezuelans not to have any living. They are determined to starve the Venezuelan population, because if they cannot gain power by any means, this country should cease to exist. Fortunately, this radical thinking is quickly becoming outdated.

Venezuelans within the country are expecting our oil production to increase. We are buoyant with the news that Chevron and Valero Energy in the United States have signed agreements for refining Petroboscán crude, coming from southern Zulia state fields into refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. This deal will allow Chevron to export oil from Venezuela to nearby Aruba Island, where ship to ship transfers will be conducted by Valero Energy, which will distribute Venezuelan crude among Gulf of Mexico refineries in Louisiana and Texas.

In neighboring Guyana, presidential elections are taking heat. We see candidates in meetings telling voters to vote for them, emphasizing the shortcomings of the candidates. They wish to defeat business as usual, in every electoral campaign on the planet. Back in Venezuela, we are highly concerned with the rise of the waters at the Orinoco River. It has rained a lot in the Andes Mountains in both Colombia and Venezuela, providing much of the water that ultimately ends up in Orinoco. Years of mismanagement in Venezuela have provoked a catastrophe in Apure, Guárico and Bolívar states. When we speak about developing the Orinoco oil belt fields, we should recognize that water treatment and flood mitigation strategies must also be implemented, adding to the huge cost of such a project.

We also hear from Chile that El Teniente mine collapsed, killing six miners. The international community should definitely take a look at mining practices in Chile, because it seems that these accidents are occurring more often than in other locations around the world. Responsible mining and responsible oil production should be the priority of all South American countries. We need to incorporate stringent environmental and safety measures, when we provide licenses to companies to extract our natural resources. This is possible. All of our countries have educated populations that can take care of this organization. We are no longer in the situation of the early 20th century, where most people were illiterate and companies came and went as they pleased. However, due to corruption or a mentality of a quick profit, many of these recommendations are neglected.

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia is funny. He says that carbon should not be exploited in Colombia, because it will provide a lot of pollution and it will destroy the environment. His extreme view is not shared by anyone else. Colombia is actually worried because of the drug addiction and alcoholism sickness that Gustavo Petro has, which is a theme that will probably be exploited in the forthcoming election campaign, which will start right after Guyana chooses its next president and regional authorities. Brazil will also have elections in 2026. We will see if the opposition will be able to regain power, as President Lula is known for inventing tricks to have his party stay in power.

It looks like developing harmoniously the natural resources of South American countries requires a great deal of understanding of political systems in each country, by understanding ideologies and proposals of conflicting factions. If you think in the long term, the most likely situation is that in any given country, within a few years there will be a majority of one party. The remaining years will be dominated by the other party. However, what seems to be a highlight of this historical period of time, is that conflicting factions in each country are too adversarial, which pollutes the discourse and makes all calculations more expensive. More resources must be allocated for security and defense against fruitless lawsuits.

Inefficiency of governments all across the political spectrum arises, as they all need to deal with oppositions that will do their best to block whatever the current government is doing. Therefore, it is understandable that multinational corporations contribute politically to conflicting parties, because they need to be in good grace with anyone who gets into power anywhere. Otherwise, it would be impossible to conduct business in the most attractive locations on the planet, in regards to their natural resources. The Venezuelan case is extreme. What used to be the opposition fortunately did not get any single of their constituents in a municipality, because they chose to abstain. Now they want to destroy both Venezuelan petroleum industry and Chevron.

We must double the discourse and again ask ExxonMobil to return. A return of ExxonMobil into Venezuela is possible and desirable. We have so much oil that probably Chevron,ENI, Repsol, ONGC Videsh and Morel & Prom combined could not allocate completely among themselves, due to the huge investment needed. Water canalization projects along the Orinoco River were just described to prevent a repeat of the tragedy in Apure, Guárico and Bolivar future rainy seasons. ExxomMobil and Chevron will together develop Yellowtail Stabroek offshore fields in Guyana, deep water oil and gas fields in Trinidad. Since Chevron is already at the Orinoco Belt and ExxonMobil used to be at Cerro Negro Orinoco Belt less than two decades ago, all should return to normal. It would be a huge territory with the greatest reserves of oil in the planet, jointly managed by all transnationals working together in this area of the world, while competing elsewhere. This should redefine the oil and gas industry.

We have also heard that British Petroleum is working in Santos oil fields in Brazil, not too far from Rio de Janeiro shore, which means that within a few years, South America should regain a position of importance in the global oil market, since conventional oil and gas exploration is proving so successful in so many places. It is unknown if unconventional shale oil production will stall or be reduced. We remember that drill, baby drill was a campaign promise of Donald Trump. As he now goes into his presidency: rather than drill, baby drill he is granting oil licenses for Chevron to produce more cheaply, and more environmentally consciously in Venezuela. Zulia state journalists have confirmed that social programs in education and culture promoted by Chevron are significant. We look forward to this kind of community investment being reinstated.

The Bolívar, Venezuelan currency, suffered a significant depreciation during the interim that Chevron was without a license. However, there are signs that the bolívar will slowly stabilize, as fresh dollars coming into the Venezuelan petroleum industry come back into the market. While cash payments are prohibited by the new license from Chevron to the Venezuelan government, barter for diluent and the possibility of Venezuelan oil sales of a significant portion of Chevron's production into our most reliable markets in Asia, such as India and China, we should expect income to be available for our battered economy.

Terrorism campaign of journalists in exile, who are threatening to stop the oil industry in Venezuela to make us all starve, must be denounced. It is a crime to exit your country, and lobby for continued economic hardship to your own relatives and friends. Unfortunately, politics tends to radicalize people who often lose rational powers. I previously talked to you about a project of roads, pipelines, and rebuilding of refineries all over South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Every time I speak about it to anyone, they think it's impossible, but they like the idea as if it were only theoretical. But it's practical. The only way to make it completely practical is to continue making calculations, as many variables are being considered.

Most of my previous blogs were political discussions from 2022, 2023, 2024 and early 2025, as the recent migration into the Avanza Oil & Roads project started in the second half of 2025. A lot of that project is still being handled privately, as I am disclosing small widgets at a time. I thought that I could devote exclusively to the economic project, but it seems that the political part continues being tantamount. Only making Guyana and Venezuela agree on anything will be gigantic. Of course there are Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina in line, also waiting for their part to be published. We will get there eventually, within a few weeks or months. For the end of this year, the project should be completed in such a way that we can start actively visiting possible investors and stakeholders.

It must be stressed out that all countries in South America deserve union and a combined policy for exploiting our natural resources, with an emphasis on electrical generation and downstream industries. We should export finished products rather than only raw materials. Unification strategy for all the Americas is challenging.