It will be Donald Trump who will decide which oil companies have his blessing and protection to operate in Venezuela, after the United States armed forces removed deposed President Nicolás Maduro from the equation a week ago, who is now imprisoned with his wife, Cilia Flores, in Brooklyn, New York.
Trump and his team met yesterday at the White House, under the gaze and questions of the press, with around twenty multinational oil and energy sector companies. The powerful businessmen responded to the Republican’s call, but showed great caution when making commitments to begin investing immediately in Venezuela, as is Trump’s wish, without legal security, an established commercial framework and political stability.
“You are negotiating with us directly, you are not negotiating with Venezuela at all, we do not want you to negotiate with Venezuela,” warned the president, who seeks to get investors to put up $100,000 million to reactivate the outdated Venezuelan infrastructure, whether oil or electrical plants.
Senior executives from ExxonMobil, Cono coPhillips, Continental Resources, Valero, Marathon Petroleum, Raisa Energy, Hil corp Energy, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass Energy, Halliburton and Chevron participated in the press conference, all from the United States. From the international scene, Repsol, Shell, Eni, and Vitol Americas attended.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods was blunt. He explained that today you cannot invest in Venezuela. «If we analyze the legal and commercial structures and frameworks in force today in Venezuela, it is not possible to invest, so it is necessary to make significant changes in these commercial frameworks and in the legal system. There must be lasting protections for investment and there must be a reform in the country’s hydrocarbon legislation,” said Woods, who also reminded Trump that the oil giant lost all its resources twice at the hands of Chavismo.
It was in 2007 that the company left Venezuela, when Chávez nationalized the industry and it did not bend and ended up losing its assets.
ConocoPhilips CEO Ryan Lance praised Trump, as did everyone at the table, but also made no commitments. Conoco, Lance said, lost $12 billion to Chavez. A good “payback,” he responded to Trump.
“Everything is going to turn out very well and there will be a lot of money to spare and that will be for the United States,” Trump said.
«They are the largest companies in the world. They know the risks. We are going to help them and they will be there [en Venezuela] for a long time. We will be there, together, for a long time. They will be driving down oil prices. “The United States will be a great beneficiary for what we have done,” he added. The leader also said that he believes that oil companies would mainly use Venezuelan workers on the ground, in addition to Americans.
«Well, there will be Americans. I guess they’re going to use a lot of Americans, but I imagine they’re going to use a lot of people from Venezuela and other places. But I think that above all they will use Venezuelan workers,” he said. Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources and a friend of Trump, was also not positive, highlighting that he needs political and regulatory stability to invest.
For Trump, the interim government of Delcy Rodríguez is cooperating with him in the appropriate way. «Venezuela is releasing large numbers of political prisoners as a sign that they are “Seeking Peace” […]”Because of this cooperation I have canceled the expected second Wave of Attacks,” the president also wrote yesterday on his Truth platform.
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