Donald Trump led a gathering of oil executives at the White House on Friday — vowing ‘total safety’ if they invested in Venezuela. The US military undertook a stunning ‘takeover’ of the country last weekend, with ousted President Nicolas Maduro now facing trial in New York. Trump has portrayed the move as a major economic opportunity for the US and indicated plans to ‘indefinitely’ control sale of Venezuelan oil. He has also seized tankers carrying oil from the country and insisted America was taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan crude.
“We just had a great meeting with the oil executives, we sort of formed a deal. They’re going to be going in with hundreds of billions of dollars in drilling oil and it’s good for Venezuela, and it’s great for the United States. A lot of money is going to be made. Oil prices will come down, although they are getting down pretty good now without it, and it was a great meeting we had today with the biggest companies anywhere in the world,” a Fox News clip showed Trump as saying.
According to an AP News update, Trump also assured that the executives would have “total safety” and deal directly with US authorities. The president has said the security guarantee would come from working with Venezuelan leaders and their people rather than deployment of US forces. He also said the companies would “bring over some security”.
“You’re dealing with us directly and not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela. Our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money, not the government’s money. They don’t need government money. But they need government protection,” Trump reportedly told the executives.
Oil execs lukewarm
Oil companies remained hesitant on Friday even as Trump played up the potential for them to strike big in Venezuela. He also acknowledged that the executives were sharp people who were in the business of taking risk — a nod to the reality that he’s asking for investments at a time when the country is teetering on the brink of political instability and economic collapse.
“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s un-investable…Significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system, there has to be durable investment protections and there has to be change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country,” said ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods.
Woods said his company would send a team to assess the situation, and noted its assets had been seized there — twice — in the past.
Commodities trade houses to help sell Venezuelan oil
According to a Reuters update, commodities trade houses Trafigura and Vitol have agreed to help sell Venezuelan oil following a request from the US government. They will reportedly provide logistical and marketing services following extensive talks with the Trump administration for such deals. The commodities traders were competing with U.S. oil producers and others for what are expected to be lucrative agreements for exports of Venezuelan oil.