Trump’s Oil Gambit, Inside the Tense White House Meeting on Venezuela
President Donald Trump’s high-stakes summons of 20 oil industry titans to the White House on Friday transformed into a collision between geopolitical ambition and corporate risk aversion. While the President sought to strong-arm executives into pledging $100 billion for the immediate reconstruction of Venezuela’s energy sectorleveraging the recent capture of Nicolás Maduro as a catalystindustry leaders pushed back with notable skepticism. The friction was most palpable when Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods declared the country "uninvestable" under current conditions, citing a lack of durable legal frameworks and the trauma of past asset seizures. Trump attempted to bypass these concerns by offering unilateral U.S. security guarantees, insisting that companies would be "dealing directly with us" rather than Caracas. Yet, his threat that "25 people are willing to take your place" rang hollow against the reality that only Chevron, which already operates in the country, committed to a tangible production increase of 50% over the next two years.
The divide reveals a deeper structural conflict the administration views Venezuela’s oil as a strategic weapon to lower domestic gas prices ahead of the midterms, while U.S. producers fear it could be a market-crashing flood. With West Texas Intermediate (WTI) hovering near $59, smaller operators warned that an influx of Venezuelan crude could render American wells unprofitable. Furthermore, despite Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s optimism for an "immediate" ramp-up, the physical degradation of Venezuela’s grid and pipelines presents a logistical nightmare that capital alone cannot instantly fix. As ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance dryly noted regarding his company's previous $12 billion loss in the region, the industry is wary of "prime real estate" that comes with a history of expropriation, leaving the White House’s vision of a rapid, U.S.-led energy boom in the Caribbean facing a decade-long reality check.