Washington (United States) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump met with the heads of major oil companies on Friday after saying the world’s biggest producers have pledged $100 billion to revive Venezuela’s oil sector. The White House meeting comes less than a week after US forces seized Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, with Trump making no secret that control of the country’s oil was at the heart of his actions.
“We’re going to discuss how these great American companies can help rapidly rebuild Venezuela’s dilapidated oil industry and bring millions of barrels of oil production to benefit the United States, the people of Venezuela and the entire world,” Trump said to open the meeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Energy Secretary Chris Wright attended the meeting along with representatives of Chevron, Exxon, Conoco Phillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy, and Hilcorp.
Trump said the government would decide which companies would operate in the South American country and guarantee their “total security.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said “at least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL.” The Trump administration has repeatedly said it is running Venezuela, with Wright asserting that Washington will control the country’s oil industry “indefinitely.” Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro’s deputy, has said her government remains in charge, with the state-run oil firm saying only that it was in negotiations with the United States.
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. Chevron is the only US company that currently has a license to operate in Venezuela. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left in 2007, after refusing then-president Hugo Chavez’s demand that they give up a majority stake in local operations to the government.
– Suffering under sanctions –
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 he could face an uphill task convincing the major US oil companies to invest in Venezuela due to uncertainty about governance in the post-Maduro era, security, and the massive expense of restoring production facilities. On Tuesday, Trump said Venezuela’s interim government would deliver up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States, with the proceeds “controlled” by the US leader himself.
Wright has downplayed concerns about the investments required to ramp up Venezuelan production, saying it should be possible to increase output by several hundred thousand barrels a day in the short to medium term. He admitted, however, that it would require “tens of billions of dollars and significant time” to bring production back to historic highs of more than three million barrels per day.
In his first term, Trump imposed an oil embargo aimed at economically suffocating Venezuela, which heavily depends on crude exports. When he returned for his second term, he ended most of the licenses allowing oil and gas multinationals to operate in the country, with the exception of Chevron. Washington now says it is “selectively rolling back sanctions” to enable the sale and transport of Venezuelan crude oil on global markets.
Venezuelan crude is known to be viscous and difficult to refine. The US Department of Energy is already planning to ship light oil to be mixed with Venezuelan crude in order to make that process easier.
© 2024 AFP
