President Donald Trump did not appreciate an oil company executive's candid assessment of Venezuela's prospects for investment during a White House meeting.
The 79-year-old president wants U.S. energy companies to invest at least $100 billion to rebuild the South American nation's oil sector after American troops captured former president Nicolás Maduro earlier this month. But Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods gave a frank assessment of the situation during a White House meeting many executives hoped would be canceled, reported Bloomberg.
“Woods thought he was speaking the truth — and he probably was — but he didn’t read the room,” said Andrew Logan, oil and gas senior director at the CERES climate advocacy nonprofit. “He wasn’t in a position to say that without blowback, and blowback is what he got.”
Trump convened about 20 industry representatives Friday in the East Room and asked them to agree to take part in reinvigorating the country's oil industry, saying he had at least 25 other people that would gladly take their places. But Woods spoke up with his concerns about the plan.
“If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela today, it’s uninvestable,” Woods said.
“How durable are the protections from a financial standpoint?" the CEO added. "What will the returns look like? What are the commercial arrangements, the legal frameworks? All those things have to be put in place in order to make a decision to understand what your return would be over the next several decades.”
Trump was infuriated by the oil executive's candor and told reporters Sunday evening he "didn't like" his remarks and threatened to keep Exxon out of Venezuela.
“They’re playing too cute," Trump groused.
But rebuilding Venezuela's oil infrastructure is financially risky and politically fraught, and executives agree it could fail to recoup their billions of dollars in investment.
“The industry was unified on Friday — with the meeting with the president — that there are going to be certain prerequisites that have to happen before there’s continued investment in Venezuela,” Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.