Gee, it sure sounds like Trmp is threatening to #nationalizeBigOil
Trump wants low oil prices. The leaders of the oil majors want higher oil prices. He wants them to invest heavily. They’re all about economizing on investment and cutting risk while rewarding shareholders with dividends and share repurchases.
Now the two sides are at an impasse. Trump will either create incentives for oil companies to invest in Venezuela or punish them for holding out. And the conflicting priorities will inform what happens next.
“We’re not going to aggressively put lots of extra barrels into an oversupplied market,” Vicki Hollub, the chief executive of Occidental Petroleum, told securities analysts on an earnings call in November, well before the White House meeting with oil executives on Jan. 9.
Mike Wirth, the chief executive of Chevron, bragged on a November earnings call that the company had gotten good at eliminating marginal investment projects. “We’re killing things earlier,” he said.
