The CEO of French oil major TotalEnergies said it was “too expensive and too polluting” to return to Venezuela, despite calls from US President Donald Trump for oil giants to invest billions in the country.
The company quit Venezuela in 2022 but the Trump administration has urged oil majors to return since the US military operation to capture the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, on Jan. 3.
Speaking on Wednesday, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné told reporters the company quit the country “because it clashed with our strategy. It was too expensive and too polluting and that is still the case,” according to Reuters.
The Trump administration has called on US energy giants to invest $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry.
Trump has pledged to support American oil companies that invest in Venezuela with government security assistance, saying last month that energy firms previously had problems “because they didn’t have Trump as a president.”
Venezuela boasts the world’s largest oil reserves but some US oil firms have expressed caution about rushing to re-enter — including Exxon Mobil.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods recently made headlines for saying at a White House meeting with Trump that the Venezuelan market is “uninvestable” in its current state.
Trump subsequently lashed out at Woods, threatening to sideline the oil giant and accusing the company of “playing too cute.”
Infrastructure Constraints
TotalEnergies started operating in Venezuela in the 1990s. Its departure followed a strategic shift away from heavy and high-sulfur crude and amid safety concerns.
Pouyanné has previously said that Venezuela is not high on the firm’s agenda.
TotalEnergies on Wednesday reported a slight drop in fourth-quarter profit and reduced share buybacks amid a weaker crude price environment.
Shares of the Paris-listed company rose nearly 2% during morning deals, notching a new 52-week high.
