Trump To Meet Oil Bosses In Bid For Venezuela Output Revival

US President Donald Trump is set to meet with energy executives at the White House within the next week as he seeks to enlist Western companies in rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry.

The parties have discussed a possible meeting Thursday or Friday that would include Trump, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, according to two people familiar with the matter. The timing remains fluid, a White House official said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also may attend the sit-down that’s being planned, said the people, who asked for anonymity because the deliberations are private.

The conversations reflect Trump’s eagerness to secure Venezuela’s mammoth oil reserves as a potential source of revenue and an opportunity to expand US energy dominance. They come just days after the US military operation that led to the capture of leader Nicolás Maduro.

But some oil companies are wary of pouring tens of billions of dollars into the country over the next decade. Executives are looking for guarantees of physical and financial security amid festering concerns about the stability of a post-Maduro government.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips previously operated inside Venezuela, but left after their assets were nationalized by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, in the mid-2000s. Chevron Corp. now operates in Venezuela under a special license from the US government.

Venezuela currently produces about 1 million barrels per day of oil — far from its 1970s heyday. Just sustaining current production would require $53 billion of investment over the next 15 years, Rystad Energy analysts said in a report.

Earlier: Trump’s Energy Boss to Meet with Oil Companies on Venezuela

Firms that sign up for Trump’s rebuild would need to help revitalize pipelines, pump stations and processing facilities that make up Venezuela’s aging, decrepit oil infrastructure.

Wright is separately expected to meet with executives from major oil companies during the Goldman Sachs Energy, Clean Tech & Utilities Conference on Wednesday in Miami, a White House official said. Summit attendees are set to include representatives from Chevron, ConocoPhillips and other companies.

In addition, representatives from Spain’s Repsol SA, which has operations in Venezuela but lost its US license to export oil from the country last year, also are slated to meet with Trump administration officials this week, a White House official said.

Some oil company representatives have expressed concern about industry-wide meetings limiting their ability to speak candidly without running afoul of US antitrust law. In the current environment, a gathering also could be seen as an endorsement of Trump’s plans to use Western oil companies to rebuild the Venezuelan oil sector.

Already, industry representatives have indicated they would need additional assurances about political stability within Venezuela and the safety of their personnel and assets, the people said. Potential incentives are under discussion.

“Although we do not yet know how the White House plans to de-risk new investment in the Venezuelan oil patch, both the President and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have hinted at backstops,” Washington-based ClearView Energy Partners said in a note for clients Tuesday. “Generally, to make the numbers work amid greater political uncertainty, we would expect operators to seek more significant incentives and/or protections.”

Political risk weighs heavily on any investment, said John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during Trump’s first term in the White House.

“Anybody who thinks the Venezuelan oil industry is going to emerge from the ashes in a matter of weeks or months, or even a couple of years, doesn’t know how bad the situation is,” Bolton told told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday.

“I’d like to know what CEO of what major American oil company is just getting all of his top advisers together to get on a plane to go to Caracas, and put billions and billions of capital expenditures into Venezuela,” he said. “The political situation is unstable.”