ExxonMobil takes step toward Venezuela return with memorandum
The memorandum is not a contract, and investment figures and timelines remain undisclosed.
A memorandum signed in Caracas sets out a path for ExxonMobil’s potential return to Venezuela, where it stopped operating in 2007. The understanding does not amount to a contract, and neither an investment figure nor a timeline has been disclosed.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez attended the signing alongside Dan Ammann, president of ExxonMobil Upstream. Rodríguez said months of negotiations preceded the memorandum, which encompasses fields already in production as well as those awaiting development. She put their reserves at billions of barrels and said she hoped concrete agreements would follow soon.
Ammann characterized the signing as a preliminary step in a process that he hoped would bring the company back. He said ExxonMobil’s capabilities, together with Venezuela’s resources and experience producing oil and gas, could benefit all involved.
The company’s departure followed the nationalization of the remaining privately held oilfields under Hugo Chávez’s government. In April, Rodríguez reported meetings involving ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and other companies, following changes to the hydrocarbons law that opened the industry to investment from private and foreign participants.
