Although Trump believes American companies should quickly tap Venezuela’s vast reserves after the ouster of Nicolas Maduro’s regime, concrete promises have been lacking, and some executives have openly expressed doubts.
Trump said he expected investments of at least $100 billion and claimed that companies in Venezuela would have “absolute security.” However, he did not provide details about the future political arrangement of the country and investment guarantees.
Representatives of Chevron, which until recently produced about a quarter of Venezuela’s oil, avoided talking about specific plans, emphasizing only a general commitment to a “better future” for the country. Harold Hamm from Continental Resources, a longtime Trump ally, acted similarly, admitting that he was interested in Venezuela’s potential, but without any commitments, reports tportal.hr.
The most open in his skepticism was the director of ExxonMobil Darren Woods, who said that Venezuela is currently ‘not ideal for investment’. He warned of the need for fundamental legal and economic changes and strong guarantees for investment protection, recalling that his company’s assets had previously been nationalized.
The Spanish Repsol stood out as an exception, whose CEO stated that the company is ready to triple production in Venezuela in the next two to three years. But even that production is currently significantly lower than the levels once reached by American companies.
Caution is additionally influenced by historical experiences. During the 2000s, under Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan state nationalized the assets of several international energy companies, costing some of them billions of dollars in losses.
According to data from the International Energy Agency, Venezuela has more than 300 billion barrels of oil, about 17 percent of world reserves. Despite this, production has fallen to less than a million barrels per day. Rystad Energy analysts estimate that by 2040, more than $180 billion in investment would be needed to raise production to three million barrels per day.
Trump claims that access to these reserves is strategically crucial for the US and warns that, without US intervention, the space would be taken over by China or Russia. At the same time, he hopes that higher production would lower fuel prices, which is one of his key political promises. But for oil companies, in the conditions of global oversaturation of the market and falling prices, this represents an additional reason for caution.
At the end of the meeting, Trump said that he has other potential investors if the American oil companies do not decide to enter Venezuela, but for now it is clear that the president’s enthusiasm is not shared by everyone he tried to win over.
(Vijesti.ba)
