2026년 2월 6일 · Unknown · financial · 출처 Yahoo Finance
Photographer: Matias Delacroix/Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. are setting their sights on expanding production in nations tied to OPEC, including some of the world’s riskiest geopolitical hotspots, as President Donald Trump’s assertive foreign policy helps them strike deals.
Venezuela, home to the world’s largest reserves, is the most high-profile opening of a nation that had been mostly off-limits to US investors after Trump captured former leader Nicolas Maduro and took control of the country’s crude exports.
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But the US is also backing Exxon and Chevron as they negotiate in Iraq, Libya, Algeria, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, according to public announcements and people familiar with the talks who asked not to be identified discussing confidential meetings.Photographer: Matias Delacroix/Bloomberg
The US oil majors’ international forays are the latest example of how Trump has upended the norms of the ways American corporations do business, especially in industries he favors, like manufacturing, fossil fuels and cryptocurrency. While Europe’s oil majors — Shell Plc, TotalEnergies SE and BP Plc — are also seeking to expand in the Middle East, the US government support gives Exxon and Chevron a competitive edge.
“You have US ambassadors out there stumping on behalf of companies,” said Samantha Carl-Yoder, a former senior State Department official who helped US companies expand overseas under President Barack Obama and during Trump’s first term. “They’re running with it in a way that just didn’t exist under prior administrations, even Republican ones.”
While the major oil producers have operated within OPEC+ countries for decades, opportunities for new projects have been limited due to state control of their oil industries, tough contract terms and political instability. In recent years, the US majors preferred to grow their shale businesses in the US, helping America overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest producer in 2018.
But now, with host governments keen to win over Trump, gain implicit US security guarantees and avoid tariffs, US oil executives sense an opportunity for international growth that hasn’t existed since the mid-2000s. Investment in some of the world’s biggest oil fields would mark an expansion of Trump’s quest for American “energy dominance” and increase fossil fuel supplies well into the 2040s.
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Of course it comes with risks.
Most of the world’s majors had the bulk of their biggest assets seized in the nationalization wave that swept the Middle East in the 1970s. Several attempts to return to the region failed due to tough contractual terms and political instability. Exxon has been nationalized twice in Venezuela in the last 50 years, and the entire industry was forced to leave Russia after the country’s war with Ukraine just four years ago.
The oil market can be unforgiving too. Exxon and Chevron spent heavily on overseas megaprojects that ran over budget and years behind schedule starting in the mid-2000s only to be hit with plunging oil prices in 2014 and again in 2020.
But with domestic shale production approaching a plateau and oil demand holding stronger than many forecasters had predicted, the US majors are on the lookout for what’s next.
Executives from both Exxon and Chevron have separately met with officials from Iraq, Libya and Algeria in recent months, often with senior members from the Trump administration. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff oversaw an agreement between Exxon and Azerbaijan in August.
“This energy dominance priority is certainly aligned with what we’re doing,” John Ardill, Exxon’s head of exploration, said in an interview. “But it doesn’t drive which countries we get into or how we enter them.”
Thomas Barrack, the US special envoy to Syria, helped facilitate a similar deal between Chevron and Damascus this week. Kuwait wants to attract foreign investment by opening up some of its oil fields.
“Pragmatic US energy policies and improved regulatory and fiscal terms in resource‑rich countries are creating an environment that supports responsible investment,” Clay Neff, president of Chevron Upstream, said in an emailed statement.
Though many of the Middle East accords are non-binding, all indications are that Exxon and Chevron are serious about pursuing concrete negotiations as they restock reserves for the next decade and beyond.
“We see the US majors gaining a disproportionate advantage given the US administration’s new, more aggressive approach,” Biraj Borkhataria, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note. This “could lead to resource acquisition opportunities not available to European peers.”
The biggest prizes are the vast oil reserves within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies in the OPEC+ group, despite the production controls the cartel requires.
Exxon operated one of Iraq’s biggest oil fields, West Qurna-1, after the US’s 2003 invasion, then exited in 2024 because it wasn’t making enough money despite the vast amount of crude there.
But now, surging supplies of oil from the Americas is forcing OPEC nations to re-think their approach to maintain their share of the global oil market. Several countries now say they’re willing to offer fresh terms in return for accessing the Western technology, know-how and capital needed to rebuild their aging oil fields.
Many governments want to imitate Guyana, where Exxon discovered oil in 2015 and now produces nearly 1 million barrels a day, Ardill said. The South American country, which recently became the world’s fastest-growing economy, agreed to commercial terms with Exxon that critics thought were too favorable to th…