Executives' excitement, and lack of it, over Venezuela
President Trump said on Thursday that the world’s biggest oil companies had pledged to spend $100 billion to fulfill his promise of reviving Venezuela’s oil sector.
But when he met with executives from more than a dozen oil companies at the White House on Friday, there was skepticism about returning to Venezuela, reports The New York Times.
Darren Woods, CEO of the largest U.S. oil company, Exxon Mobil, said: “We’ve had our assets seized there twice, and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes.”
“Today it’s uninvestable,” he said.
Two people close to the companies at Friday’s meeting said they weren’t aware of any such $100 billion commitment, according to the Times.
Meanwhile, hedge funds and other investment firms are “racing to capitalize on President Trump’s ambitions to dominate the Western Hemisphere,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
“Hedge-fund managers scored big last fall betting on Argentina, following Washington’s $20 billion rescue package for the country and the decisive victory for the party of Javier Milei, a Trump ally, in the midterm elections,” the WSJ says.
Investment firms are planning trips to Venezuela and are considering opportunities in countries like Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, after Trump’s signals of potential intervention there, the WSJ says.
“In one sign of speculative fervor, shares of the tiny Bank of Greenland have surged as much as 42 percent this year, suggesting market participants anticipate an investment boom in Greenland,” says the WSJ.
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