US$ 100 billion to restore Venezuela’s energy? Oil executives have doubts
Exxon Mobil has a long history of drilling in challenging environments. The largest oil company in the United States will go almost anywhere to extract hydrocarbons, as long as it can manage the risk and make ends meet. Exxon pumps crude oil from deep waters off the coast of Guyana and has invested about $19 billion to produce natural gas in the island nation of Papua New Guinea.
But at a highly staged meeting of oil industry executives called by President Donald Trump at the White House last week, Exxon CEO Darren Woods was blunt in highlighting the obstacles his company would face in returning to Venezuela, where it has been burned before.
Also read: Trump: Exxon may stay out of Venezuela after CEO calls country “uninvestable”
“We’ve already had our assets seized there twice, so you can imagine that re-entering a third time would require some pretty significant changes,” Woods said at the White House meeting, while Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, sat beside him.
“Today, it is impossible to invest,” he added.
Trump called the executives together to discuss the details of his plan to take control of the Venezuelan oil industry. But the reaction from Woods and other leaders at the event suggested that gaining industry support for such an expensive and potentially risky venture may not be as simple as the White House had hoped.
In the days since U.S. military forces entered Venezuela and captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, Trump has asserted that the U.S. will run the country and its oil industry for years. He added that he wants to use the country’s vast oil reserves to bring the price of a barrel down to $50.
The president emphasized that he expects oil companies to foot the bill for the project, and has a big number in mind.
“The plan is for them to spend — meaning our oil giants — at least $100 billion of their money, not the government’s money,” Trump told reporters. The government could provide protection and security, he said.
Woods wasn’t the only executive at the meeting to express caution about the plan. At one point, Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma oil magnate and one of the president’s closest allies, offered a carefully calibrated response that stopped short of endorsing the proposal.
“It excites me as an explorer,” he said. “Everyone has it in their blood.” But he added that Venezuela has “its challenges.”
Trump, who wore a “Happy Trump” pin, also had a lively exchange with Ryan Lance, CEO of ConocoPhillips, regarding the company’s $12 billion in damages against Venezuela.
The president, however, has shown little interest in addressing these concerns, saying, “We’re not going to look at what people have lost in the past.” He jokingly suggested that such losses could be deducted from corporate taxes.
“That’s already been shot down,” Lance replied, somewhat dryly.
And after Mark Nelson, vice chairman of Chevron, spoke, Trump made what sounded like a threat.
“If we make a deal, you will be there for a long time,” he said, without naming Chevron or any other oil company. “If we don’t make a deal, you won’t be there at all.”
The meeting managed to create a spectacle. In addition to the executives, the room was packed with members of the press, including Tucker Carlson, who has been critical of the government’s interventions in Venezuela. (Far-right activist Laura Loomer, in turn, criticized Carlson’s presence, writing on social media that it was a “bad image for the Trump administration in a legislative election year.”)
At one point, Trump interrupted the discussion to stand up and look out the window at the construction of the White House ballroom. (“Wow. What a view.”)
The number of firm commitments the president was able to extract from executives was less clear. But Trump appeared confident when speaking to reporters after the meeting.
“We kind of made a deal,” he said. “They’re going to come in with hundreds of billions of dollars in oil drilling, and that’s good for Venezuela and it’s great for the United States.”
