Trump seeks $100 billion for Venezuela oil, but Exxon boss says country ‘not investable’

US President Donald Trump has called for at least $100bn (£75bn) in oil spending on Venezuela but received a lukewarm response at the White House, with one leader warning the South American country was currently “uninvestable”.

The heads of the largest American oil companies present at the meeting recognized that Venezuela, with vast energy reserves, represented an attractive opportunity.

But they said significant changes would be needed to make the region an attractive investment. No major financial commitment was immediately made.

Trump said he would release the South American nation’s oil after US forces captured its leader Nicolas Maduro in a raid on the capital on January 3.

“One of the things America will get out of this situation will be even lower energy prices,” Trump said during his Friday meeting at the White House.

But the oil bosses present were cautious.

Darren Woods, Exxon’s chief executive, said, “Our assets have been seized there twice and so you can imagine that going back a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve seen historically and what the state is currently.”

“Today, it’s not investable.”

Venezuela has had a complicated relationship with international oil companies since the discovery of oil on its territory more than 100 years ago.

Chevron is the last major American oil company still operating in the country.

A handful of companies from other countries, including Spain’s Repsol and Italy’s Eni, both represented at the White House meeting, are also active.

Trump said his administration would decide which companies would be allowed to operate.

“You deal directly with us. You don’t deal with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela,” he said.

The White House said it was working to “selectively” roll back U.S. sanctions that have restricted Venezuelan oil sales.

Officials say they are coordinating with the country’s interim authorities, currently led by Maduro’s former number two, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

But they also made clear that they intended to exercise control over sales, in order to maintain their influence over Rodríguez’s government.

The United States this week seized several tankers carrying sanctioned crude. U.S. officials said they were working to set up a sales process, which would deposit the money collected into U.S.-controlled accounts.

“We’re open for business,” Trump said.

On Friday, Trump signed an executive order to bar U.S. courts from seizing revenues the United States collects from Venezuelan oil and holds in U.S. Treasury accounts.

Any judicial attempt to access these funds would interfere with U.S. foreign relations and international goodwill, the executive order states.

“President Trump is preventing the seizure of Venezuelan oil revenues, which could undermine critical U.S. efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela,” the White House wrote in a fact sheet on the order.

Venezuela’s oil production has been hit in recent decades by disinvestment and mismanagement – ​​as well as US sanctions. With around a million barrels per day, the country represents less than 1% of global supply.

Chevron, which accounts for about a fifth of the country’s output, said it planned to boost production, building on its current presence, while Exxon said it was working to send a technical team to assess the situation in the coming weeks.

Repsol, which currently has production of around 45,000 barrels per day, said it is considering a way to triple its production in Venezuela over the next few years, given the right conditions.

Executives at other companies also said Trump’s promises of change would encourage investment and they hoped to seize the opportunity.

“We’re ready to go to Venezuela,” said Bill Armstrong, who runs an independent oil and gas drilling company. “In real estate terms, this is prime real estate.”

But analysts say significantly increasing production would require considerable effort.

“They are as polite as possible and supportive as much as they can, without committing real dollars,” said David Goldwyn, president of energy consultancy Goldwyn Global Strategies and former U.S. State Department special envoy for international energy affairs.

Exxon and Shell “are not going to invest single-digit billions of dollars, let alone tens of billions of dollars,” without physical security, legal certainty and a competitive tax framework, Goldwyn said.

“It’s not really welcome from an industry perspective,” he said. “The conditions are just not right.”

Although smaller companies might be more eager to jump in and help increase Venezuela’s oil production over the next year, he said those investments would likely be around $50 million — a far cry from the “fantastic” $100 billion figure put forward by Trump.

Rystad Energy estimates that it would take between $8 billion and $9 billion in new investments per year to triple production by 2040.

The company’s chief economist, Claudio Galimberti, said Trump’s $100 billion investment in Venezuela could have a major impact on production – if it were to come to fruition.

He said companies would only be likely to invest on this scale with subsidies – and political stability. Americans should not expect the situation in Venezuela to lower oil prices in the near future, he added.

“It will be difficult to see significant commitments until we have a completely stabilized political situation and no one can guess when that will happen,” he said.

Additional reporting by Danielle Kaye