Our perspective regarding the situation in Venezuela as shared with President Trump

Darren delivered the following remarks at the White House:

Thank you, Mr. President, I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity for the entire industry to show up and provide perspective.

Frankly, we've been kind of unresponsive to the press regarding Venezuela. I guess today’s the opportunity to address the press directly with respect to a number of questions that have been asked of ExxonMobil. First and foremost, obviously, is the interest that we have in Venezuela. I think one of the reasons why we see many industry players here is we’re in a depletion business for a product that is in great demand and will be in demand for many, many, many decades to come.

And as a depletion business, the biggest challenge we have is finding resources. There's an opportunity in Venezuela with all the resources there. We don't have that challenge of finding; we have the challenge of developing those resources. So I think it's in the best interest of these companies and, frankly, society as a whole for the industry to be interested in understanding what the opportunity here represents.

I’ll just share a philosophy that ExxonMobil has when we enter countries—because we do business all around the world, in a number of different regimes—we take a very long‑term perspective. The investments that we make span decades and decades. So, we do not go into any opportunity with a short-term mindset.

There's a value proposition that we have to meet. It has to be a win‑win‑win proposition. Obviously, it has to be a win for the company and our shareholders, generating a return for the investments that we make. It has to be a win for the government. The resources are an important source of revenue that help support the people of the places that we do business. And it has to be a win for the people. We have to be wanted there— and to be a good neighbor. And those three things ensure a stable, long‑term platform for the large investments that we make for the long term.

With respect to Venezuela in particular, we have a very long history in Venezuela. In fact, we first got into Venezuela back in the 1940s. 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 from what we've historically seen here and what is currently the state.

If we look at the legal and commercial constructs—frameworks—in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable. And so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system, there has to be durable investment protections, and there has to be a change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.

We’re confident that with this Administration and President Trump working hand‑in‑hand with the Venezuelan government that those changes can be put in place. And with respect to the Venezuelan government—that perspective—we don’t have a view on. We haven’t talked to the Venezuelan government, and obviously we have yet to assess the people’s perspective with respect to ExxonMobil entering the country.

In the short term, there are things that can be done while these longer‑term issues are being worked. For us, we haven’t been in the country for almost 20 years. We think it’s absolutely critical in the short term that we get a technical team in place to assess the current state of the industry and the assets to understand what would be involved to help the people of Venezuela get production back on the market.

With the invitation of the Venezuelan government and with appropriate security guarantees, we are ready to put a team on the ground there. We also have an integrated set of capabilities—from production to refining to trading—and I think we can be of assistance to getting Venezuelan crude to market and realizing market price to help again with the financial situation in Venezuela.

So that’s the short‑term perspective that I have. Thank you, Mr. President, for the work that you’ve done to secure not only the national security, but the energy security of the region. And thank you Secretary Rubio, Secretary Wright, Secretary Burgum, for your leadership in this matter. Thank you.