San Francisco Frontiers - Trump pitches Venezuela oil to US majors - and hits skepticism

Trump told the industry leaders that his administration -- not Caracas -- would decide which firms are allowed to operate in Venezuela following the stunning capture of president Nicolas Maduro.

"We're going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in... (we're) going to cut a deal with the companies," Trump said at the White House, arguing that foreign firms had faced no meaningful protections under Maduro.

"But now you have total security. It's a whole different Venezuela," he added.

Trump said oil companies would "deal with us directly," signaling that the US government would attempt to cut the oil-rich, cash-poor Latin American nation completely out of the loop when it came to exploiting its own resources.

Despite Trump's assurances, ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods struck a note of skepticism, saying major reforms would be needed before companies could justify returning to Venezuela.

"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," he said.

"If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela -- today, it's uninvestable."

The White House meeting came less than a week after US forces seized Maduro, with Trump making no secret that control of Venezuela's oil was central to his actions.

Opening the session, he said the talks would focus on how US companies could rapidly rebuild the country's dilapidated oil industry and boost production by millions of barrels a day.

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Energy Secretary Chris Wright attended alongside executives from Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas and Repsol, among others.

While some of those executives appeared more open to investing than ExxonMobil, analysts told AFP that Trump's push to revive Venezuela's oil industry rests on shaky economic and strategic ground.

Experts warned that vast reserves on paper do not translate into quick or profitable production, pointing to outdated infrastructure, political instability, heavy crude that is costly to extract, and investor unease in a world shifting away from fossil fuels.

"There's lots of talk about the size of the reserves -- 300 billion barrels of proved reserves -- but what's often missing from the conversation is how realistic it is for those to be economically extracted," said Rich Collett-White, an energy analyst at Carbon Tracker.

- Further strikes cancelled -

Trump had earlier claimed on his Truth Social platform that "at least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL." Wright has said Washington will control Venezuela's oil industry "indefinitely."

Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez has said her government remains in charge, while the state oil company said only that it was in negotiations with Washington.

Chevron is currently the only US firm licensed to operate in Venezuela.

ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips exited in 2007 after refusing demands by then-president Hugo Chavez to cede majority control to the state.

In his social media post, Trump said he cancelled a second wave of strikes on Venezuela due to what he called "cooperation" from the country.

Sanctioned by Washington since 2019, Venezuela sits on about a fifth of the world's oil reserves and was once a major crude supplier to the United States.

But it produced only around one percent of the world's total crude output in 2024, according to OPEC, having been hampered by years of underinvestment, sanctions and embargoes.

Trump sees the country's massive oil reserves as a windfall in his fight to further lower US domestic fuel prices.

But Friday's meeting demonstrated the challenge he faces in convincing the major US oil companies to invest in Venezuela due to uncertainty about governance in the post-Maduro era.

H.King--SFF