The president was told about this by the leading oil executives of the USA Donald Trump At the White House on Friday, Venezuela will need major reforms to attract investment.
Trump said on Friday that the industry would invest at least $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector with US security guarantees. But CEOs of major oil companies like it ExxonMobil and Conoco Phillips The meeting did not commit to an immediate re-entry into Venezuela.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods told Trump that Venezuela’s market is “not suitable for investment” in its current state. Venezuela seized the assets of Exxon and Conoco in 2007, and Caracas owes the companies money. billions of dollars on outstanding claims in arbitration cases.
“Our assets have been seized there twice, so you can imagine that a third re-entry would require some significant changes from what we’ve seen historically,” Woods told Trump at the White House. “If we look at the legal and commercial structures and structures that exist in Venezuela today, this is not an investment.”
Exxon is ready to send a technical team to assess the current state of Venezuela’s oil industry and assets, Woods said.
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance congratulated Trump on ousting former President Nicolás Maduro. He said the banking sector should help restructure Venezuela’s debt and finance billions of dollars to rebuild the country’s infrastructure.
Lance also called for the restructuring of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
“Because we think this is big and bold, we should even think about restructuring the entire Venezuelan energy system, including PDVSA,” Lance told the president.
Trump told the CEO of Conoco that the U.S. government would not consider taking back the assets the company lost in its 2007 nationalization.
“We don’t look at what people have lost in the past because it’s their fault,” Trump said. “It was a different president. You make a lot of money, but we’re not going back.”
Chevron is the only major US oil company operating in Venezuela through joint ventures with PDVSA. Mark Nelson, vice chairman of the board, said “Chevron has a way to rapidly increase production, which currently stands at about 240,000 barrels per day.”
Nelson told Trump: “We have a long way to go to immediately increase the raise from these joint ventures by 100%.” “We can also increase production by around 50% in our disciplined investment schemes over the next 18-24 months.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that the U.S. may rely more on smaller oil companies rather than larger companies to invest in Venezuela.
“The slow-moving, big oil companies with corporate boards are not interested,” Bessent said Thursday at the Minnesota Economic Club.
“I can tell you, independent oil companies and individuals, savages — our phones are ringing off the hook,” Bessent said. “They want to go to Venezuela yesterday.”