EXXON, CONOCOPHILLIPS SIGNAL CAUTION ON VENEZUELA
Exxon, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, the three largest US oil producers, were for decades the most prominent partners of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.
The government of late President Hugo Chavez nationalised 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 US$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 at the White House 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 at the time.