NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 19:28 EST — After-hours
Chevron Corp shares rose 2.6% in after-hours trading on Thursday after a Reuters report said the oil major is in talks with Washington to expand its Venezuela licence, which could let it ship more crude to its refineries and sell to other buyers. The stock was at $159.25. Tighter terms imposed in July cut the company’s Venezuelan exports to about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December from 250,000 earlier this year, sources said.
The talks land as the Trump administration pushes to take tighter control of Venezuela’s oil sales and revenue, and as it leans on firms to help move barrels and handle payments. The White House has invited the bosses of Vitol and Trafigura to talks on marketing Venezuelan oil on Friday, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Venezuela’s output has fallen to around 1 million bpd, about 1% of global supply, after years of under-investment and sanctions, the report said.
Crude prices, meanwhile, have stayed glued to the headlines. Brent settled up 3.4% at $61.99 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate ended up 3.2% at $57.76 on Thursday, both at two-week highs, Reuters reported. “The complex is rebounding,” analysts at Ritterbusch and Associates said. Reuters
Chevron is not alone in trying to secure a slot in any new export set-up. Sources said Chevron, Vitol, Trafigura and others are vying for U.S. government deals to export crude and market up to 50 million barrels that Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA has accumulated in inventories. Jean-Francois Lambert of consultancy Lambert Commodities said big traders bring “global reach and optionality the majors lack.” Reuters
In regular trading, the S&P 500 finished little changed on Thursday as investors looked ahead to Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. Energy was the strongest sector on the day, helped by the jump in oil prices.
Still, the wider set-up for oil is not clean. Morgan Stanley analysts estimated the market could swing into a surplus of as much as 3 million bpd in the first half of 2026, and Venezuelan barrels have been offered at steep discounts. “Crude futures continuing on the defensive,” Dennis Kissler, senior vice president of trading at BOK Financial, said after Trump’s Venezuela comments helped push prices lower on Wednesday. Reuters
Chevron is scheduled to host its fourth-quarter earnings conference call on Jan. 30 at 11:00 a.m. EST. Investors are likely to press for detail on cash returns, refining margins and whether the Venezuela licence changes move from talks to paperwork.
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