11 Jan (Reuters) – United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he could stop Exxon Mobil from investing in Venezuela, after the company’s chief executive called the country ‘uninvestable’ during a White House meeting last week.
Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods told Trump that Venezuela would need to change its laws before it could become an attractive investment opportunity, during a high-level meeting Friday with at least 17 other oil industry executives.
Trump called on the group to spend $100 billion to revitalize Venezuela’s oil industry at a meeting held less than a week after U.S. forces captured and removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power in a brazen overnight attack.
Woods’ skeptical comments quickly became the dominant headline, undermining the White House’s hopes of building momentum from its engagement with the world’s most prominent oil executives.
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“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington on Sunday. ‘I’ll probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn’t like their answer. They are acting too funny.’
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Exxon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
EXXON AND CONOCOPHILLIPS SIGNAL CAUTION ABOUT VENEZUELA
Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, the three largest oil producers in the US, were for decades the most important partners of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.
The government of late President Hugo Chávez nationalized the sector between 2004 and 2007, and although Chevron negotiated partnership agreements with PDVSA, ConocoPhillips and Exxon left the country and filed major arbitration cases shortly thereafter.
“Our assets have been confiscated twice, and so you can imagine that to get back in a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen here,” Woods told Trump on Friday.
Woods said Exxon needed lasting investment protections to be introduced and that the country’s hydrocarbon law also needed to be reformed.
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‘If we look at the legal and commercial structures in place in Venezuela today, it is not possible to invest,’ he said.
