The oil giant considers Venezuela unsuitable for investment – Trump took it upon himself

President of the United States Donald Trump threatens to block the world’s largest listed oil company Exxon Mobilin access to the Venezuelan oil market after the company’s CEO Darren Woods criticizes the country as “not suitable for investment”.

Trump wants to rebuild Venezuela’s oil production sector with the help of Western oil companies. Investments in Venezuela are expected at up to 100 billion dollars, but Exxon Mobil is not expected to be involved in the plans.

“I didn’t like Exxon’s response. I’m leaning more towards keeping Exxon out,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday.

The US kidnapped the president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduron on January 3 in a military operation that left the Venezuelan government in chaos. According to Trump, the purpose of the military operation was to take the country and its oil resources to the United States.

According to Trump, Venezuela does not need one company if there is no interest in investing in the country.

“If you don’t want to go there, tell us. There are 25 people there who will gladly take your place,” Trump said at the start of a meeting at the White House last week.

“Not suitable for investment in the current situation”

At the White House meeting, a large number of oil company representatives gave optimistic speeches about reviving the production that had fallen to a low level in Venezuela, but not everyone considered the plans for new investments to be profitable.

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods told Trump in the meeting that “significant changes” should take place in Venezuela before the company’s investments.

“If we look at the current situation in Venezuela, the country is uninvestable. Our assets have been seized in the country twice and you can imagine that a third investment would require significant changes to what we have seen in history.”

Exxon Mobil and another major oil company Conoco Phillipsin the position is clear: the state of Venezuela owes the companies billions because the company’s assets were confiscated from the state by Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez during. According to the New York Times the companies are demanding approximately $12 billion in damages.

What can the US offer oil companies?

According to the Financial Times even the oil companies that would like to invest in Venezuela want guarantees from the US administration for their investments.

“No one wants to go there when one random tweet can change the foreign policy of the entire country,” a venture capitalist specializing in the energy sector told the FT.

Another oil company manager interviewed by FT said that potential investments take time.

“In Venezuela, there must be serious guarantees from the administration if the big companies are to return to the country. Larger investments will take time and the ramp-up of production will take even longer.”

Trump responded to the doubts on Sunday in his own style.

“They’re going to be safe, there’s not going to be any problems. They’ve had problems before because Trump wasn’t president.”