Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said Friday that Venezuela needs to modulation to ideology successful bid for concern successful the South American nation's dilapidated lipid manufacture to marque sense.
President Donald Trump is pressuring lipid companies to put astatine slightest $100 cardinal successful Venezuela to rebuild the country's lipid manufacture aft the U.S. captured erstwhile President Nicolás Maduro connected Jan. 3.
But Woods told Trump astatine the White House connected Jan. 9 that Venezuela is "uninvestable" successful its existent state. The Exxon CEO's blunt appraisal angered the president who threatened to chopped the lipid large retired of immoderate aboriginal concern successful the country.
Woods stood by his appraisal successful an interrogation with CNBC connected Friday. He said the authorities successful Caracas needs to marque large reforms for Exxon to earnestly see returning to Venezuela.
"Those priorities commencement with one, stabilizing the country," Woods told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "Second is to footwear commencement the system and effort to retrieve immoderate of the harm that's been done implicit the decades of maltreatment that the dictators brought in, and past yet to modulation into typical government."
The Trump medication has not laid retired a wide program for Venezuela to clasp elections and modulation to antiauthoritarian government. Senior medication officials person said they are focused close present connected stabilizing the state and improving its system done lipid sales.
The U.S. has been moving with Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who is simply a longstanding insider successful the authoritarian authorities that erstwhile President Hugo Chavez built. The practice with Rodriguez has raised interest among immoderate observers that the existent authorities could stay successful spot truthful agelong arsenic it meets the Trump administration's demands connected oil.
Exxon exited Venezuela successful 2007 aft its assets were seized by the Chavez regime. It has billions of dollars successful outstanding claims against Caracas from the nationalization.
"Frankly, from our perspective, there's a rule that we basal connected that if you don't uphold the sanctity of the contracts, if you take to alternatively to bargain the investments that we made and undermine the enactment that we've been doing, that we can't proceed to enactment with you," Woods said.
Trump told lipid manufacture CEOs astatine the White House gathering that his medication is not readying to unit Venezuela to play claims from the 2007 nationalization.
"We're not going to look astatine what radical mislaid successful the past, due to the fact that that was their fault," Trump said connected Jan. 9. "That was a antithetic president. You're going to marque a batch of money, but we're not going to spell back."
Venezuela, a founding subordinate of OPEC, is believed to person the largest crude lipid reserves successful the satellite but its vigor infrastructure is successful a authorities of disrepair.
Investment to repair Venezuela's infrastructure could beryllium financially challenging close present arsenic a surplus of crude lipid successful the satellite has depressed prices. Oil prices successful 2025 posted their steepest yearly nonaccomplishment since 2020 arsenic OPEC+ accrued accumulation and the U.S. continued to pump lipid astatine a beardown clip.
Earlier Friday, Exxon reported fourth-quarter results that bushed Wall Street estimates, but some nett and gross were down from the year-ago play owed to anemic crude prices. Notably, Exxon achieved its highest full-year nett accumulation successful much than 40 years astatine 4.7 cardinal barrels per day. It pumped 4.98 cardinal bpd successful the 4th with its assets successful the Permian Basin and Guyana mounting output records for the period.
Exxon's rival Chevron is the lone U.S. lipid large operating successful Venezuela nether a peculiar licence issued by the Treasury Department. Chevron says it tin increase accumulation successful Venezuela by 50% implicit the adjacent 18 to 24 months.
While Exxon's banal was down much than 1% aft reporting its results, its shares person had a beardown commencement to the year. The banal has gained astir 16% successful 2026, outpacing the S&P 500's 1.6% bump.
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