ExxonMobil, the biggest U.S. oil company, is exploring a return to Venezuela after leaving almost two decades ago.
On Monday, the company announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Venezuelan government and its state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. The MOU, which is typically a non-binding agreement, involves ExxonMobil examining potential "upstream opportunities" – that refers to oil exploration and production.
ExxonMobil said in a statement, "We welcome the opportunity to evaluate potential upstream opportunities with the Venezuelan government and PDVSA."
A lot has happened in Venezuela's oil sector in the past ten months. In January, shortly after the Trump administration captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, Trump gathered U.S. oil company executives in the White House and urged them to invest in the country. At that time, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said the country was "uninvestable."
But the country overhauled its petroleum law this year to make it more attractive for international oil companies. Those changes included allowing private oil companies more operational control in partnerships, as well as reforming taxes and royalties. The country has also welcomed the expansion of other U.S. oil companies, including Chevron and Continental Resources.
Still, ExxonMobil executives have maintained a cautious tone. On a call with analysts last month, Woods said that while there is "progress being made on those areas– working on fiscal regimes, working on legal regimes, working on investor protections, a number of things that are kind of in progress. But there's a way to go."
"This memorandum is a meaningful first step," ExxonMobil's statement reads, "But any future investment would require stable policies, clear regulations, strong investment protections and competitive returns."
ExxonMobil, which grew out of Standard Oil, operated in Venezuela for much of the 20th century. But over the years, the company's relationship with the Venezuelan government has been rocky. Beginning in 2004, then-President Hugo Chávez forcibly renegotiated contracts with international oil companies and ordered the nationalization of ExxonMobil assets. In 2007, ExxonMobil left the country.
Since then, ExxonMobil has been in international arbitration with the Venezuelan government. In September 2025, a U.S. court ordered Venezuela to pay ExxonMobil over $985 million for the past expropriations.
Energy analysts tell NPR that ExxonMobil may be looking at oil fields in Venezuela's Orinoco Belt, an area with sizable oil reserves and where the company has operated in the past.
The oil extraction process in this region generates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions, says Paasha Mahdavi, a political science professor at UC Santa Barbara who studies the oil industry.
Mahdavi says oil production in the Orinoco Belt has particularly high methane levels, a potent planet-heating gas. " This really matters from a global climate story," Mahdavi says.
ExxonMobil also has large oil investments in Venezuela's neighbor, Guyana, a key emerging player in the international oil industry. For years, Venezuela and Guyana have had a territorial dispute that has also been related to oil rights.
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