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US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said after meeting with the country’s interim President Delsey Rodriguez in Caracas that Washington “wants to see a flood of investment” into Venezuela, although he stressed that the US would not provide the guarantees sought by oil officials.
“We are massively changing the viability of commercial business at the grassroots level in Venezuela, and there is very high American interest in that,” Wright told reporters during a roundtable event following his meeting with Rodriguez on Wednesday afternoon.
However, Wright, the most senior US official to visit Venezuela since the capture of authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro by US forces on January 3, said Washington would not provide security or financial guarantees for US companies in the South American country.
U.S. companies have expressed skepticism about getting involved in Venezuela, with ExxonMobil Chief Executive Darren Woods saying in a televised meeting with President Donald Trump last month that the country is not “investable.”
“I believe we will see Venezuela as a very high-risk country to do business with… and businesses will respond accordingly on their risk-reward assessment,” said Wright, a former oil field services executive at Liberty Energy.
Venezuela boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but its relations with the US have soured dramatically since the late revolutionary socialist Hugo Chávez took the presidency in 1999 and established close ties with US adversaries including Russia, China, Cuba and Iran.
Speaking about Chinese business interests in Venezuela, which include investments in the energy sector, Wright said: “China does a lot of deals in countries where they are not mutually beneficial commercial deals.”
“I think with American help and American partnership we want to stop these kinds of deals,” he said. “But legitimate deals from legitimate Chinese businesses… we treat them as legitimate things.”
During Chávez’s tenure, which ended with his death from cancer in 2013, Venezuela seized assets belonging to US oil companies, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, while installing political and military allies in the state oil company PDVSA.
After assuming the presidency, Maduro faced an economic collapse and humanitarian crisis, with hyperinflation increasing and millions of people fleeing abroad. The White House imposed sanctions on PDVSA during Trump’s first term. The US and many of its allies see Maduro winning re-election in 2024.
Since the capture of Maduro and his wife Celia Flores, Washington has begun to roll back sanctions, including on Tuesday issuing a license that allows oil field service contractors to bring equipment into Venezuela. Chevron already had a sanctions waiver license, making it the only US oil company currently operating in the country.
“Washington is working seven days a week to issue licenses” that would allow companies to operate in Venezuela, and “we want to free the Venezuelan people and economy,” Wright said in remarks delivered with Rodriguez at the Miraflores presidential palace.
However, hours later he told reporters that “there is no specific calendar yet” for lifting restrictions.
Rodriguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president before receiving Trump administration support to lead trade-friendly reforms, said that “through diplomacy, we will overcome our differences”.
His government late last month pushed through a new hydrocarbons law that weakens state control over the sector, reduces the tax burden on companies and allows international arbitration of disputes.
Wright said the reform would boost investment, although “it must go further… it would be a huge win for Venezuela and the world”.
Asked by the FT whether she would visit Washington soon as relations between the two countries ease, Rodriguez said: “I have a lot of work to do here.”
Additional reporting by Ana Rodriguez Brazon in Caracas
