TotalEnergies on why it’s not sold on Trump’s Venezuela dream
Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of TotalEnergies SE, during the Paris Conference organized by the International Economic Forum of the Americas (IEFA) on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, in Paris, France.
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CEO of the French energy giant Total Energies He said returning to Venezuela was “too expensive and too polluting” despite US President Donald Trump’s calls for Big Oil to invest billions of dollars in the country.
The company left Venezuela in 2022, but the Trump administration has urged the oil majors to return since a US military operation on January 3 to capture the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking on Wednesday, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné told reporters the company was “leaving the country because it conflicts with our strategy.” “It was too expensive and too polluting, and that’s still the case.” The comments were reported by Reuters.
A TotalEnergies spokesperson was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
The Trump administration has called on US energy giants to invest $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry.
Trump has pledged to support American oil companies investing in Venezuela with government security support and said last month that energy companies were having problems “because Trump is not their president.”
Venezuela boasts the world’s largest oil reserves, but some US oil companies have expressed caution against rushing to tap into those reserves again. ExxonMobil.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods recently said in a White House meeting with Trump that the Venezuelan market “cannot be invested“In its current state.
Trump then attacked Woods, threatening to sideline the oil giant and accusing the company of “being too sweet.”
‘Infrastructure constraints’
TotalEnergies began operating in Venezuela in the 1990s. His departure was followed by a strategic change It is away from heavy, high-sulfur crude oil and amid safety concerns. Pouyanné has previously said that Venezuela is not high on the firm’s agenda.
“There are a lot of infrastructure constraints,” Barclays global crude oil market analyst Amar Singh told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday when asked about Venezuela’s investment situation.
This view shows electrical towers on one of the streets in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on February 1, 2026.
Maryorin Mendez | Afp | Getty Images
“But before we get to this point of the conversation, we first need to see what’s going on with regime change. How quickly can we transition to a democratic system?” Singh said.
“We have already seen some reforms, but it is a long process and in our view, even if everything goes well, in the most optimistic scenario we see Venezuelan production only increasing by 200,000 to 300,000 barrels per day by the end of this year.”
TotalEnergies on Wednesday reported A slight decline in fourth-quarter profits and reduced share buybacks in a weak crude oil price environment.
Shares of the Paris-listed company rose almost 2% in morning trading, reaching a new 52-week high.
