U.S. President Donald Trump met with about a dozen top executives from major oil companies Jan. 9 to discuss investing in Venezuela’s oil industry. Trump promised them huge profits if they went in, though they’d have to spend about $100 billion on rebuilding the country’s oil infrastructure first. The executives who spoke during the public part of the meeting were open to the proposal, but reluctant to make any commitments under current conditions.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods offered the starkest assessment, reported Politico, telling Trump that Venezuela is “uninvestable” under current conditions. He said major changes were needed before his company would return to the country, and that big questions remain about what return Exxon could expect from any investments. Among other things, “There has to be durable investment protections, and there has to be a change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country,” he said. Still, Woods said he was confident the U.S. can help make those changes, and said he expected Exxon could put a technical team on the ground in Venezuela soon to assess the state of its oil infrastructure.
But even those who were more enthusiastic were reluctant to make concrete commitments. “It excites me as an explorationist,” Harold Hamm, a fracking executive and major Trump ally, whose experience has centered on oil production inside the U.S., said of the opportunity to invest in Venezuela. “It is a very exciting country and a lot of reserves—it’s got its challenges and the industry knows how to handle that.”
