- Trump said he wants to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela, saying it was “playing too cute.”
- Exxon CEO Darren Woods said on Friday that Venezuela is currently “uninvestable.”
- Other oil companies, like Chevron, pledged a commitment to increase oil production in Venezuela.
President Donald Trump said he’s “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela.
In a Sunday press gaggle on Air Force One, a reporter asked Trump which oil companies have made commitments to investments in Venezuela, and if Exxon has done so.
“I’d probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn’t like their response. They’re playing too cute,” Trump said to the reporter.
He said that he did not like Exxon’s response to his $100 billion plan to invest in the Venezuelan oil industry. On Friday, Exxon’s CEO, Darren Woods, told the president that he does not think Venezuela is currently ripe for investment.
“If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela — today, it’s uninvestable,” Woods said in the meeting with Trump and oil executives at the White House.
He said that Exxon, which is based in Texas, has a long history in Venezuela, having operated in the country twice. He said the company has had its assets in Venezuela seized on both those occasions.
Woods said that significant changes need to happen in the country to consider reentering, but he was confident the Trump administration could work with the Venezuelan government to implement those changes.
However, other oil executives were more optimistic. Chevron’s vice chairman, Mark Nelson, told Trump that the company plans to increase its current production with oil partners in Venezuela by 100% “effective immediately.”
Trump’s comments about Exxon come more than a week after US military forces launched a strike in Venezuela and captured the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Maduro is being tried by a New York court for drug trafficking and weapons charges.
Exxon’s stock price has remained largely flat after the bell on Friday. It’s up more than 16% in the past year.
