Overview
- President Trump said he is inclined to keep ExxonMobil out of projects after CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela not investable under current frameworks.
- Trump signed an executive order to protect Venezuelan oil revenues held in U.S. Treasury–controlled accounts from creditor seizures.
- Vitol and Trafigura obtained preliminary licenses to move cargoes, and the U.S. and Venezuela are finalizing a roughly $2 billion sale of up to 50 million barrels.
- Venezuela’s more than $150 billion in external debt and expropriation claims of about $12–14 billion by companies including ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil raise attachment risks for new revenues.
- Operational and compliance hurdles persist, and near‑term output gains look limited as Chevron and Repsol outline modest multi‑year increases and key service providers remain constrained.