Chevron's presence in Venezuela wasn't a choice based on favorable terms—the company accepted unfavorable JV arrangements from the mid-2000s PDVSA era precisely because competitors had already exited. Staying in a hostile policy environment doesn't translate to comfortable operations.

Here's the timing problem nobody discusses: the Trump administration has roughly three years to reshape energy geopolitics. But Venezuela oil projects operate on decade-plus timelines—exploration, infrastructure buildout, production ramp-up. Policy windows and resource cycles don't align.

You can't force a 30-year project into a 3-year political mandate. Geography and geology move slower than Washington.