U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that it is up to Venezuela to decide whether it should leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which it has been part for more than 60 years.
“Well, I don’t know. That’s up to them. I mean, that’s going to be up to them,” Trump told reporters following a Bloomberg report last week saying Venezuela was considering whether to leave the organization, only months after the United Arab Emirates’ withdrawal.
Washington has maintained a strict oversight of Venezuela’s oil industry since U.S. forces captured then President Nicolas Maduro in January. Shortly after, both countries signed a flagship oil supply pact involving global trading houses that has allowed to boost Venezuela’s crude exports to the U.S.
On Friday, Trump announced an even larger deal for the U.S. to lock in 17 large oilfields in Venezuela that contain some 64 billion barrels of proved crude reserves, a fifth of the country’s total, and could secure up to 1.5 million barrels per day of supply to the U.S.
Trump said on Monday that U.S. majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron were among companies committed to invest in the country, without elaborating.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in Washington; Writing by Jasper Ward and Marianna Parraga; editing by Michelle Nichols and Stephen Coates)