SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President Trump has been very clear about what he wants from U.S. oil companies in Venezuela.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The plan is for them to spend, meaning our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100 billion of their money, not the government's money. They don't need government money.
SIMON: He met with oil executives at the White House yesterday to press his point. NPR's Camila Domonoske was watching. Camila, thanks so much for being with us.
CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: How did the executives respond?
DOMONOSKE: Well, you know, in the first part of this meeting, which was open to the press, the president was really dangling this opportunity in front of companies, right? Venezuela has a lot of undeveloped oil, and he said to companies, if you aren't interested in it, other companies are going to take your place.
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TRUMP: If we make a deal, you're going to be there a long time. If we don't make a deal, you won't be there at all. It's, you know, sort of interesting.
DOMONOSKE: So they're sitting at this big U-shaped table, and President Trump calls on executives to give statements. And a lot of them expressed interest in the oil, but, Scott, there were not any firm promises to pour those billions in. Big oil companies lost money before when the Venezuelan government forcibly renegotiated contracts, and they want to make sure anything they do now would be profitable. ExxonMobil is the largest U.S.-based oil and gas company, and here's what CEO Darren Woods said. He was directly addressing the gathered press here.
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DARREN WOODS: We've had our assets seized there twice. And so you can imagine to reenter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we've historically seen here and what is currently the state.
DOMONOSKE: In fact, he said Venezuela today is uninvestable. Although he said that could change. And then the meeting went on after that, closed to the press.
SIMON: Sounds like this with the start of talks with these companies, certainly not a done deal. What sort of things were on the table?
DOMONOSKE: Yeah. Well, based on the statements companies presented, they're certainly hypothetically open to putting money into Venezuela. Chevron, which is already currently operating in Venezuela, indicated they'd be willing to boost their production 50%. A lot of smaller companies made it clear they would be interested in the oil, although they can't write the billion-dollar checks that the big oil companies can. But in terms of what the U.S. is offering, Trump promised, quote, "total safety, total security." It was not really clear what that means without a U.S. military presence. But he said that companies shouldn't expect to get back the money they lost when their previous assets were seized - write that off. And he also said he did not want to offer financial guarantees, a backstop if things fall apart and companies lose money. You know, I have heard from analysts who think that that's what the oil companies would really want, and Trump said flatly, no, they will have to take on some risk here.
SIMON: How much?
DOMONOSKE: Well, that's one of the things that's really tricky here. It is hard to know. I mean, how stable is the political situation in Venezuela. And how bad are the conditions in these oil fields? How much is this actually going to cost? I spoke with John Auers, an analyst who's been in the oil industry for more than 45 years.
JOHN AUERS: You have to get boots on the ground to see exactly what shape the existing infrastructure is in. And nobody knows that right now. So all the numbers I've seen tossed around about how much it cost are basically wild guesses.
DOMONOSKE: I will say there is a clear difference between the short and medium and long term here. In the short term, the U.S. is already taking oil that Venezuela is already producing and redirecting it through the U.S. American refineries perfectly positioned to refine that. In the medium term, there's some smaller investments that could boost output, fix some broken equipment. In the long term, you're talking many billions of dollars, many years and real uncertainty. And while it's not something you'll normally hear from oil executives, there's also uncertainty about oil demand long term. It depends a lot on how - globally, how many people buy electric vehicles and how quickly China, a huge user of energy, shifts away from fossil fuels.
SIMON: NPR's Camila Domonoske. Camila, thanks so much for being with us.
DOMONOSKE: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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