Washington — President Trump is meeting with big oil industry executives Friday afternoon, as he pushes U.S. oil companies to invest in Venezuela.
CEOs from Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp will be at the White House for the meeting.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are also expected to be in attendance. Wright also met with several oil executives earlier this week.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said the president and oil executives will be talking about “investment opportunities that will restore Venezuelan oil infrastructure.”
Mr. Trump has pitched Venezuela’s oil wealth as a way to financially fuel the country’s economic recovery — and deliver benefits for energy consumers and oil companies. He told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Thursday night that he’s expecting oil companies to spend at least $100 billion to “rebuild the whole oil infrastructure” in the South American country.
The U.S. has imposed a “quarantine” on Venezuelan oil in recent weeks, and American forces seized another oil tanker linked to the country on Friday, the fifth ship commandeered in the campaign. Rubio said this week that the quarantine gives the U.S. “tremendous leverage” over Venezuela and that the U.S. will soon begin selling up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil on the open market. The U.S., Rubio said, will control the proceeds.
Since Venezuela nationalized its oil industry during Hugo Chávez’s regime, Chevron has been the only major U.S. oil company with a presence there. It remains unclear whether any other firms plan to enter the market imminently.
Some experts say drawing in foreign investment could take years due to a combination of high costs, political instability and a history of the Venezuelan government nationalizing oil assets. And Venezuelan crude oil tends to be heavy and tough to refine, though some refineries on the Gulf Coast are equipped to process it.
