Exxon CEO says Venezuela needs to transition to democracy for oil investment to make sense

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said Friday that Venezuela needs to transition to democracy in order for investment in the South American nation’s dilapidated oil industry to make sense.

President Donald Trump is pressuring oil companies to invest at least $100 billion in Venezuela to rebuild the country’s oil industry after the U.S. captured former President Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3.

But Woods told Trump at the White House on Jan. 9 that Venezuela is “uninvestable” in its current state. The Exxon CEO’s blunt assessment angered the president who threatened to cut the oil major out of any future investment in the country.

Woods stoody by his assessment in an interview with CNBC on Friday. He said the government in Caracas needs to make major reforms for Exxon to seriously consider returning to Venezuela.

“Those priorities start with one, stabilizing the country,” Woods told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Second is to kick start the economy and try to recover some of the damage that’s been done over the decades of abuse that the dictators brought in, and then ultimately to transition into representative government.”

The Trump administration has not laid out a clear plan for Venezuela to hold elections and transition to democratic government. Senior administration officials have said they are focused right now on stabilizing the country and improving its economy through oil sales.

The U.S. has been working with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez, who is a longstanding insider in the authoritarian regime that former President Hugo Chavez built. The cooperation with Rodriguez has raised concern among some observers that the current regime could remain in place so long as it meets the Trump administration’s demands on oil.

Exxon exited Venezuela in 2007 after its assets were seized by the Chavez regime. It has billions of dollars in oustanding claims against Caracas from the nationalization.

“Frankly, from our perspective, there’s a principle that we stand on that if you don’t uphold the sanctity of the contracts, if you choose to instead to steal the investments that we made and undermine the work that we’ve been doing, that we can’t continue to work with you,” Woods said.

Trump told oil industry CEOs at the White House meeting that his administration is not planning to force Venezuela to play claims from the 2007 nationalization.

“We’re not going to look at what people lost in the past, because that was their fault,” Trump said on Jan. 9. “That was a different president. You’re going to make a lot of money, but we’re not going to go back.”

Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, is believed to have the largest crude oil reserves in the world but its energy infrastructure is in a state of disrepair.

Investment to repair Venezuela’s infrastructure could prove financially challenging right now as a surplus of crude oil in the world has depressed prices. Oil prices in 2025 posted their steepest annual loss since 2020 as OPEC+ increased production and the U.S. continued to pump oil at a strong clip.

Earlier Friday, Exxon reported fourth-quarter results that beat Wall Street estimates, but both profit and revenue were down from the year-ago period due to weak crude prices. Notably, Exxon achieved its highest full-year net production in more than 40 years at 4.7 million barrels per day. It pumped 4.98 million bpd in the quarter with its assets in the Permian Basin and Guyana setting output records for the period.

Exxon’s competitor Chevron is the only U.S. oil major operating in Venezuela under a special license issued by the Treasury Department. Chevron says it can increase production in Venezuela by 50% over the next 18 to 24 months.

While Exxon’s stock was down more than 1% after reporting its results, its shares have had a strong start to the year. The stock has gained nearly 16% in 2026, outpacing the S&P 500’s 1.6% bump.