ExxonMobil said on Monday it signed a memorandum of understanding with Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA to explore potential upstream oil opportunities, marking a first step toward a return to the country nearly two decades after its assets were expropriated.
The agreement is non-binding and does not commit ExxonMobil to any specific project. The company did not identify which oil fields or areas it is evaluating, and a final joint-venture or production-sharing contract would be needed before it could take part in exploration or production.
"This memorandum is a meaningful first step, but any future investment would require stable policies, clear regulations, strong investment protections and competitive returns," ExxonMobil said in a statement.
The memorandum was signed by Andres Acosta, ExxonMobil's executive director for Venezuela, and Hector Obregon, president of PDVSA, at a ceremony presided over by interim President Delcy Rodriguez. It covers the development of brown fields and green fields with significant reserves of heavy and extra-heavy crude oil, particularly in the Orinoco Oil Belt.
ExxonMobil first entered Venezuela in the 1940s. Before the expropriation, it held a 41.67% stake in the Cerro Negro heavy crude project, now known as Petromonagas, as well as a 50% interest in the La Ceiba project in the southern Maracaibo basin. The company left Venezuela after refusing to give PDVSA majority control over its projects during the nationalization push under former President Hugo Chavez. Its affiliates filed for arbitration against Venezuela at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2007, and a tribunal awarded ExxonMobil $1.6 billion plus interest in 2014. Venezuela has challenged the award, and the matter remains pending.
In January 2026, ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods described Venezuela as "uninvestable" under its existing legal and commercial framework. More recently, Woods said the company's expertise in Canadian heavy crude could provide a competitive advantage in Venezuela, where the oil has a similar viscosity. Reuters has reported that ExxonMobil is interested in returning to the Petromonagas project and evaluating neighbouring areas in the Carabobo block.
The agreement marks a step forward for the Trump administration's effort to revive Venezuela's oil sector after removing former leader Nicolas Maduro from power in January. The administration has pressed American energy companies to help rebuild the sector, an effort estimated at about $100 billion. Venezuela holds about 300 billion barrels of oil reserves, the largest in the world according to OPEC. Chevron, unlike ExxonMobil, never left Venezuela under Chavez, choosing instead to renegotiate its contracts with PDVSA.
