Venezuela remains uninvestable for oil majors
The thesis argued is that Venezuela's heavy sour crude sector is structurally uninvestable for major oil companies due to prohibitive extraction costs and corroded infrastructure.
The argument
The speaker noted that the CEO of Exxon and other industry leaders explicitly labeled Venezuela as uninvestable. They argued that US refiners can source heavy sour crude more cheaply and reliably from Canada, and that rebuilding Venezuela's dilapidated infrastructure would require hundreds of billions of dollars.
The thesis, stress-tested
✓ What validates it
- ✓Continued reliance on Canadian heavy crude imports by US Gulf Coast refiners
- ✓Lack of major capital expenditure announcements from Western oil majors in Venezuela
▸ Risks discussed
- ▸Chevron maintains limited legacy operations in the country which could see marginal success if political conditions shift
Hear it yourself
"They all told him so, so much so as, you know, the CEO of Exxon who said right outright, Venezuela is uninvestable. President Trump was pretty That was off that was off message, that Exxon, comment."
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