A former Chevron executive is raising $2 billion to invest in oil projects in Venezuela after the United States military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, as he confessed this Monday to the British newspaper ‘Financial Times’ (FT).
Ali Moshiri, former director of Chevron’s Latin American operations, and now head of the Amos Global Energy Management fund, said in an interview with the ‘FT’ that he has a $2 billion private placement memorandum “ready to come into effect” and with “several investment objectives” identified.
“I have received a dozen calls from potential investors in the last 24 hours. Interest in Venezuela has gone from zero to 99%,” Moshiri said.
In the opinion of the former Chevron executive, the capture of Maduro by the United States special forces last Saturday and the call by the president of that country, Donald Trump, to American companies to reactivate the Venezuelan oil industry, have created a “sudden opportunity” although anticipated.
The Amos Global investor memorandum, dated December 2025, indicates that the fund intends to acquire between 20,000 and 50,000 barrels per day of oil production and 500,000 barrels of reserves from the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) with a return on investment of two and a half times and an exit within a period of between five and seven years.
Another industry source cited by the FT commented, however, that Washington’s military action in Caracas “surprised” the three main US oil companies (ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron) and that they have cautiously received Trump’s investment order in Venezuela.
“None of the industry players who have the capital and experience to invest in Venezuela were advised or consulted before Maduro’s removal or the president’s (Trump) statements,” this source noted.
Venezuela has around 17% of the world’s crude oil reserves, but its production has plummeted by more than 75% between 2013 and 2020 and although the United States now pumps up to 10 times more oil, accessing Venezuelan fields could help US oil companies replenish their reserves and supply refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would not allow the Venezuelan oil industry to be controlled by Washington’s “adversaries”, such as China, Russia or Iran, some of the main current clients of Venezuela and its companies.
With information from EFE.
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