What the Big Oil executives told Trump about investing in 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 from
what we’ve historically seen here,” Woods told Trump at the White
House. “If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks
in place today in Venezuela today, it’s uninvestable.” ...
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance congratulated Trump on ousting former
President Nicolás Maduro. He said the banking sector will need to help
restructure Venezuela’s debt and provide billions of dollars in
financing for the restore [sic] the country’s infrastructure. ... Trump told the Conoco CEO that the U.S. government is not looking at
recovering the assets the company lost during the 2007 nationalization.
“We’re
not going to look at what people lost in the past, because that was
their fault,” Trump said. “That was a different president. You’re going
to make a lot of money, but we’re not going to go back.” ...
Vice Chairman Mark Nelson said Chevron has a way forward to rapidly
ramp up its production, which currently stands at about 240,000 barrels
per day.
“We have a path forward here very shortly to be able to
increase our liftings from those joint ventures 100% essentially
effective immediately,” Nelson told Trump. “We are also able to increase
our production within our own disciplined investment schemes by about
50% just in the next 18 to 24 months.” ...
