NEW YORK
The administration of US President Donald Trump is planning to meet with executives from US oil companies later this week to discuss boosting Venezuelan oil production after US forces ousted its leader Nicolas Maduro, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The meetings are crucial to the administration’s hopes of getting top US oil companies back into the South American nation after its government, nearly two decades ago, took control of US-led energy operations there.
The three biggest US oil companies — Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron — have not yet had any conversations with the administration about Maduro’s ouster, according to four oil industry executives familiar with the matter, contradicting Trump’s statements over the weekend that he had already held meetings with “all” the US oil companies, both before and since Maduro was seized.
“Nobody in those three companies has had conversations with the White House about operating in Venezuela, pre-removal or post-removal to this point,” one of the sources said on Monday.
