![\"ExxonMobil](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/c-gettyimages-2254846032.jpg?c=original&q=w_1280,c_fill\/f_avif\")
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\n ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said with extraordinary bluntness at a White House gathering of oil executives Friday that the company would not be diving headfirst into Venezuela, saying the current situation on the ground presents an unacceptable risk to the company.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today, in Venezuela today, it\u2019s uninvestible, and so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system,\u201d Woods said. \u201cThere has to be durable investment protections, and there has to be a change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Exxon left Venezuela in 2007 when the Chavez regime nationalized the oil industry. Exxon wouldn\u2019t accept the country\u2019s terms, and the government seized the company\u2019s assets there.\n <\/p>\n
\n To return in full and restore Venezuela\u2019s dilapidated oil infrastructure, Woods suggested Exxon would need to be convinced that the country had a stable political system, protections from crime and theft, and changes to Venezuela\u2019s laws that require foreign companies to enter majority-government-run joint ventures and taxes of 60% on oil proceeds.\n <\/p>\n
\n Woods said he was confident the Trump administration could make those necessary changes. But to even understand what kind of return on investment Exxon would get from Venezuela, Woods said a number of questions need to be answered first.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe questions will ultimately be: How durable are the protections from a financial standpoint? What are the returns look like? What are the commercial arrangements, the legal frameworks?\u201d Woods asked. \u201cAll 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 that these billions of dollars of investments would be made on.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Pressed by President Donald Trump on a timetable for a return, Woods said the company could return with a scout team to assess the situation and make determinations about what would be required for a larger comeback.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe can we can hit the ground and within the next couple of weeks, start the assessment, and then from there, we need to understand what\u2019s needed,\u201d Woods said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said with extraordinary bluntness at a White House gathering of oil executives Friday that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-398109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}