Venezuela signed a memorandum of understanding with the US oil company ExxonMobil in Caracas on Monday, opening the way for a possible ExxonMobil Venezuela return. The company left the country in 2007, according to MercoPress.
The signing took place in the presence of acting President Delcy Rodríguez and ExxonMobil Upstream President Dan Ammann, MercoPress reported. Rodríguez said the memorandum covers both producing and undeveloped oilfields. She claimed they hold "billions of barrels of reserves." No independent confirmation of that figure was reported.
Ammann called the memorandum "an important first step" toward the company’s return, according to MercoPress. NPR National also reported that ExxonMobil signed the document with the Venezuelan government and its state-owned oil company to explore opportunities in the country. That outlet’s account could not be checked in full, because only a headline and a short excerpt were available.
The memorandum is not a contract, MercoPress reported. No investment figures or timelines have been disclosed.
ExxonMobil left Venezuela in 2007, after the nationalisation of the last privately held oilfields under Hugo Chávez’s government, according to MercoPress. The company’s return would mark a reversal of that exit.
The shift in tone is notable. In March 2025, when Rodríguez was vice president under Nicolás Maduro, she accused ExxonMobil of "conspiring against Venezuela for more than a decade," MercoPress reported. The outlet said this contrasts with the current rapprochement.
The broader context has also changed. Maduro was removed following a US military operation on January 3, and US President Donald Trump has since urged American energy companies to invest in Venezuela. In April, Rodríguez reported meetings with ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, among other companies, after a reform of the hydrocarbons law opened the sector to private and foreign investment, according to MercoPress.
Rodríguez hopes the memorandum will "very soon translate into concrete agreements." No timeline has been set, and no contract has been signed.
The key facts rely mainly on MercoPress, with NPR National providing only partial detail. Several points remain unclear. The sources do not give the exact date of the signing beyond "Monday," and they do not name the state-owned oil company. Neither ExxonMobil nor the Venezuelan government has issued statements beyond the remarks by Ammann and Rodríguez, and the reserves claim has not been independently verified.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.