Trump to meet with oil company executives to discuss investment plans for Venezuela

President Trump will meet with oil company executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investment plans for Venezuela, after the U.S. captured the country's president over the weekend.

The CEOs of ConocoPhillips, Exxon, and Shell will attend, in addition to a representative from Chevron, unnamed sources told CNBC. Halliburton, Valero, and Marathon will also have representatives there.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum will attend the meeting as well.

Trump said after the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that U.S. oil companies will invest billions of dollars to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector.

The U.S. military captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, over the weekend, and took them to New York City to face federal conspiracy, drugs, and weapons charges. The couple pleaded not guilty Monday in a federal courthouse in Manhattan.

While Venezuela has the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world at 303 billion barrels, it only produces about 800,000 barrels per day, compared to its peak at 3.5 million in the 1990s.

Wright said Wednesday that it will cost tens of billions of dollars to return Venezuelan production to its historic levels. According to Rystad Energy, the estimated cost for Venezuelan production to reach 3 million barrels per day is more than $180 billion through 2040.

Currently, Chevron is the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela through a joint venture with state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela.

“Chevron is on the ground so we’re getting daily updates,” Wright told CNBC. “They’re actually working [under] this regime. So with them, how can we provide incremental tweaks or changes to allow their model to grow even more.”

He added that Venezuelan production could grow by several hundred thousand barrels per day in the short- to medium term with small capital deployments.

Wright explained that Exxon and Conoco will need reassurances to return to Venezuela, after the companies exited the country following former President Hugo Chavez seizing their assets in 2007. Both companies have billions of dollars in outstanding claims against the government that they won in arbitration cases.

The energy secretary said that the debts Venezuela owes Exxon and Conoco will be repaid at some point, but they are not an immediate priority for the Trump administration. The White House is looking to stabilize Venezuela’s economy through oil sales, Wright said.

“We’re trying to engineer a transition of Venezuela to a place that Americans want to do business in, want to invest new capital in, want to grow new partnerships with,” he said.

In an effort to pressure the government in Caracas, the U.S. has taken control of Venezuela’s oil exports, Wright said. Venezuela will ship tens of millions of barrels to the U.S., which will be sold by the Trump administration, and the proceeds will be held in U.S.-controlled accounts, he explained.

“We need to have that leverage and that control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela,” Wright said.

The energy secretary said the proceeds from the sales will be used to benefit Venezuela. Trump said Wednesday that the oil revenue will be used to purchase U.S.-made products, which will include agricultural products, medicine, medical devices and equipment to modernize Venezuela’s energy sector.