United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he may block Exxon Mobil from investing in Venezuela after the oil major’s chief executive described the country as “uninvestable” during a White House meeting last week, underscoring growing tensions between Washington and major energy firms over the future of Venezuela’s oil sector.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington on Sunday, Trump expressed irritation at Exxon CEO Darren Woods’ sceptical assessment of Venezuela’s investment climate, delivered during a high-profile meeting with the president and at least 17 other oil executives on Friday.
“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said. “I’ll probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn’t like their response. They’re playing too cute.”
The remarks came less than a week after US forces captured and removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power in a dramatic overnight operation, an intervention Trump has portrayed as opening the door to rapid economic and political restructuring in the crisis-hit South American nation.
During the White House meeting, Trump urged US energy companies to commit up to US$100 billion to revitalise Venezuela’s vast but long-mismanaged oil industry, once among the world’s largest producers but now crippled by years of underinvestment, sanctions and economic collapse.
However, Woods’ comments quickly emerged as the dominant headline from the meeting, undercutting the administration’s effort to generate momentum from its engagement with the world’s most powerful oil executives.
“We’ve had our assets seized there twice, and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen,” Woods told Trump, referring to Exxon’s past experience in Venezuela.
He added that without durable investment protections and reforms to Venezuela’s hydrocarbons law, the country remained commercially unviable. “If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, it’s uninvestable,” Woods said.
Exxon did not immediately respond to requests for comment following Trump’s remarks.
Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron were once among the most prominent foreign partners of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA. But the industry was nationalised between 2004 and 2007 under late president Hugo Chávez, forcing Exxon and ConocoPhillips to exit the country and pursue international arbitration.
According to court rulings, Venezuela now owes more than US$13 billion collectively to Exxon and ConocoPhillips for the expropriations.
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance told Trump during the meeting that his company is the largest non-sovereign creditor to Venezuela and called for a sweeping restructuring of the country’s debt and energy system, including PDVSA itself.
Trump sought to reassure ConocoPhillips, saying the company would recover much of what it was owed, but stressed that the United States intended to reset Venezuela’s economic framework.
“We’re not going to look at what people lost in the past because that was their fault,” Trump said. “We’re starting with a clean slate.”
The president also made clear that Washington would tightly control access to Venezuela’s oil sector during the transition. “You’re dealing with us directly. You’re not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela,” Trump said, adding that his administration would decide which companies would be allowed to operate in the country.
On Saturday, Trump signed an executive order preventing courts or creditors from seizing revenues linked to Venezuelan oil sales held in US Treasury accounts, a move aimed at stabilising the flow of funds as the administration charts its next steps for the oil-rich nation.
The episode highlights the delicate balance Trump faces as he seeks to rapidly overhaul Venezuela’s economy while persuading wary energy giants to return to a country long viewed as one of the riskiest investment destinations in the world.
