Donald Trump summoned Big Oil executives to the White House this week after promising they would invest $100 billion into Venezuela, only to be embarrassed again.
In the week since Trump ordered American military forces to launch an illegal attack against Venezuela and kidnap President Nicholas Maduro, he has made a promise that Big Oil will invest $100 million in the country.
On Friday, Trump met with executives from several of the largest oil companies, including American company Exxon, to beg them to make his promise a reality. Only it didn’t go that way. In fact, none of the executives made any sort of commitment beyond expressing their excitement at the prospect of getting their greedy little hands on Venezuelan oil.
Trump soon regretted opening the meeting to the press when Exxon CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela “univestable.”
“If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, it’s uninvestable,” Woods said, according to Politico. “Significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system. There has to be durable investment protections, and there has to be a change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.”
After that, Trump closed the meeting to the public.
Indeed, money would have to be spent to modernize the Venezuelan oil infrastructure. There would have to also be security guarantees, which Trump would not commit to beyond claiming that Venezuela would provide security or the oil companies would do it themselves. Not exactly comforting words considering the same political body remains in power in Venezuela, with Maduro’s vice-president currently in charge.
Despite his bluster, Trump has not really changed anything in Venezuela beyond removing Maduro. Venezuela has no real incentive to hand over its number one natural resource to outside companies, although Chevron already works together with Petróleos de Venezuela SA, Venezuela’s national oil company.
Even if Big Oil were to go in, they would be basically stealing resources they only gained access to because of an illegal military strike. Trump did not inform Congress of the military action, nor did he get permission as required by the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973. Furthermore, Congress recently passed a resolution barring Trump from further military action in Venezuela, so that takes using American troops as security forces off the table.
The only thing Trump has done is help Chevron make more money in the short term, which does not benefit Americans and only weakens diplomacy with Venezuela and other Latin American nations. Once again, Trump opens his mouth and gets humiliated.
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