Trump says he might keep Exxon out of Venezuela after CEO called it ‘uninvestable’

By Jarrett Renshaw

Jan 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he might block Exxon Mobil from investing in Venezuela after the oil major’s CEO called the country “uninvestable” during a White House ​meeting last week.

Exxon CEO Darren Woods told Trump that Venezuela would need to change its laws before it ‌could be an attractive investment opportunity, during the high-profile meeting on Friday with at least 17 other oil executives.

Trump had urged the group to spend $100 ‌billion to revitalize Venezuela’s oil industry in a meeting less than a week after U.S. forces captured and removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power in a brazen overnight raid.

Woods’ skeptical remarks quickly emerged as the dominant headline, undercutting the White House’s hopes of building momentum from its engagement with the world’s most prominent oil executives.

“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump told reporters on ⁠Air Force One on his way back ‌to Washington on Sunday. “I’ll probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn’t like their response. They’re playing too cute.”

Exxon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

EXXON, CONOCOPHILLIPS SIGNAL CAUTION ‍ON VENEZUELA

Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, the three largest U.S. oil producers, were for decades the most prominent partners of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.

The government of late President Hugo Chavez nationalized the industry between 2004 and 2007, and while Chevron negotiated deals to partner with PDVSA, ​ConocoPhillips and Exxon left the country and filed for prominent arbitration cases shortly after.

Venezuela now owes over $13 billion collectively ‌to ConocoPhillips and Exxon for the expropriations, according to court rulings.

“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 from what we’ve historically seen here,” Woods told Trump on Friday.

Woods said that Exxon needed durable investment protections introduced and the country’s hydrocarbons law also needed to be reformed.

“If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela today, it’s uninvestable,” he said.

ConocoPhillips ⁠CEO Ryan Lance told Trump that his company was the largest non-sovereign ​credit holder in Venezuela, and called for a restructuring of the debt ​and the country’s entire energy system, including PDVSA.

Trump said ConocoPhillips would get a lot of its money back, but the U.S. would start with a clean slate. “We’re not going to look at what ‍people lost in the past ⁠because that was their fault,” he said.