In a rare public rebuke, President Donald Trump stated on Air Force One that he is “inclined to keep ExxonMobil out” of his proposed $100 billion initiative to rebuild Venezuela’s oil sector. The president was responding to a reporter’s question about which U.S. oil companies have committed to invest in Venezuelan production under American security guarantees. Trump said he was dissatisfied with Exxon’s reaction to the plan, accusing the company of “playing too cute” and declining to name it alongside other firms that have expressed interest in the rebuilding efforts. The comment marks a significant shift in the administration’s outreach strategy for the nation that holds the world’s largest proven crude reserves.

ExxonMobil’s chief executive, Darren Woods, delivered a stark assessment on Friday during a White House meeting with President Trump and other industry leaders, stating that Venezuela is “uninvestable” in its current legal and commercial framework. Woods cited repeated asset seizures—ExxonMobil has had Venezuelan operations nationalized twice—and the absence of durable investment protections as key barriers. He suggested that significant reforms to hydrocarbon laws and judicial safeguards would be prerequisites for any re-entry, though he expressed confidence that the U.S. government could help negotiate those changes with the interim Venezuelan authorities.

ExxonMobil shares were largely unchanged in after-hours trading on the day of Woods’s comments, reflecting investor caution but also the company’s diversified footprint. With a long history in Venezuela dating back to the 1920s, ExxonMobil is owed roughly $1 billion by Caracas for past nationalizations. Excluding the firm from future contracts could shift billions of dollars in potential upstream spending toward competitors, particularly Chevron, which holds an active U.S. license to operate jointly with Venezuela’s state oil company. For ExxonMobil investors, the administration’s stance creates both near-term uncertainty around Venezuelan asset recoveries and long-term questions over participation in what could become a multiyear rebuilding program under U.S. security guarantees.