Key Oil Executives Hesitate to Commit to Trump’s Major Investment Promises

Executives from three major American oil companies with long histories in Venezuela cautioned at a White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday that any serious investments in Venezuelan oil infrastructure would require massive, long-term structural changes.

None of the leaders of Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips made major commitments or promises to Trump at the meeting, which gathered nearly two dozen oil executives. Some of their statements appeared to contradict Trump’s claims that American companies will quickly invest billions of dollars in Venezuela.

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods described the current situation in Venezuela as “uninvestable.”

“We take a very long-term perspective,” he said at the meeting. “The investments that we make span decades and decades. We don’t go into any opportunity with a short-term mindset, and there’s a value proposition that we have to meet.”

Woods then said that long-term commitments from Exxon will require serious interest from both the Venezuelan government and the Venezuelan people.

“We haven’t talked to the Venezuelan government, and obviously we have yet to assess the people’s perspective with respect to ExxonMobil entering the country,” he said.

Ryan Lance, the CEO of ConocoPhillips, said that to restore the country’s oil infrastructure and production, “we need to also be thinking about even restructuring the entire Venezuelan energy system, including PDVSA,” the state-owned oil and gas company.

When Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright specifically asked about what the companies are prepared to commit to in the next 18 to 24 months, the major executives made only small promises.

Woods from Exxon committed to sending a technical team to the country to assess the situation on the ground. Mark Nelson, vice chairman at Chevron, committed to quickly increasing oil production by about 100% and then again by 50% in the following two years. Those increases from Chevron add up to well below the country’s potential for production with the significant investment that Trump said he expects.

“We are certainly committed to its present, and we very much look forward as a proud American company to help it build a better future,” Nelson said.

The other companies represented at the meeting — most of them without a significant history in Venezuela — seemed more eager than the three major oil giants to commit to making investments. Many of the others present who adopted a more eager and aggressive tone represented industries beyond oil drilling itself, ranging from oilfield services to refining to oil shipping and trading.