ConocoPhillips said on Thursday it is sending a small evaluation team to Venezuela this week to evaluate oil and gas opportunities.
The U.S. oil producer left the South American country in 2007 after its assets there were nationalized. The company is owed about $12 billion with interest following arbitration awards stemming from the expropriations.
ConocoPhillips said it will evaluate potential new Venezuela investments as it works to collect what it is owed.
U.S. President Donald Trump has urged oil firms to spend billions and rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector after American forces removed President Nicolas Maduro in January. Top U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil – which also exited the country in 2007 – sent a technical team last month to evaluate the infrastructure and investment opportunities.
ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said last month that Venezuela needed to “completely rewire” its fiscal system to attract new investment and called recent reforms “woefully inadequate.”
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Houston; Editing by Nathan Crooks, Rod Nickel)