00:00What number?
00:01$12 billion.
00:02How much?
00:03$12 billion.
00:04Well, it's a good write-off.
00:07It's already been written off.
00:10It's been written off.
00:12All right, thank you very much.
00:13You'll make it back one way or the other.
00:15You're all going to do very well.
00:16I think really very well.
00:17Marco just gave me a note.
00:20Go back to Chevron.
00:22They want to discuss something.
00:23Go ahead.
00:24I'm going back to Chevron, Marco.
00:26Thank you, Marco.
00:28Go ahead.
00:28Is there a question, Mr. President?
00:30Yes, go ahead, Marco.
00:31What are you saying here?
00:33Mark, if you can update us on operations in the ground
00:38and with the appropriate approvals,
00:39what you might be able to achieve in the next 12 to 18 months,
00:42give us a little view from the ground.
00:44You bet.
00:45You bet.
00:45So today Chevron has 3,000 employees
00:49in four different joint ventures in Venezuela today.
00:52And over the past five to seven years,
00:54they've taken production from about 40,000 barrels a day
00:57to 240,000 barrels a day, essentially getting those facilities
01:01and that equipment up to standards that would be something that people
01:04in the room would be more accustomed to.
01:06Given the work we've done with Secretary Wright and Secretary Burgum
01:12and even Secretary Besant, I think we have a path forward here very shortly
01:16to be able to increase our liftings from those joint ventures 100 percent,
01:20essentially effective immediately.
01:23We are also able to increase our production within our own disciplined investment schemes
01:29by about 50 percent just in the next 18 to 24 months,
01:33and that's just leveraging what's on the ground.
01:35So to Secretary Rubio's comments about phase one,
01:39this is taking the momentum of improvements we've already made there locally
01:44and building on those and creating more momentum for the people of Venezuela.
01:48Do you think you have an advantage being there?
01:51You know, you've been there by the skin of your teeth.
01:53It's been tough for you to be there.
01:55But do you think you have an advantage over the other people in this room
01:57by the fact that you are there?
01:59Yeah, I think there are, Mr. President, I think there would be days
02:01where it didn't feel like an advantage,
02:03and there are days where it does feel like an advantage.
02:05But having people on the ground today that care desperately
02:08about the people of Venezuela and know how to operate the assets that are there
02:11is a definite advantage today.
02:13Would you say the best locations are available,
02:16or would you say the best locations are already sort of worked,
02:21even though they're in very bad shape?
02:23The best locations for finding oil, the best locations for oil?
02:28There are more opportunities than not, Mr. President.
02:31With 300 billion barrels of reserves and resources in country,
02:35there are lots of opportunities for many companies.
02:37Will you be building new,
02:38or will you be using the old infrastructure that you have?
02:42Yeah, today it's a little bit of a mix,
02:44but today it's mostly us taking the equipment of today,
02:48getting it to the standards that we are accustomed to,
02:50to your comments about making it how it should be today.
02:52Most of the investments that we've been making are about getting it up to our standards.
02:57Well, I think you're going to make an investment,
02:58but you're going to get your money back very quickly,
03:00and that's part of our thing.
03:01We're going to have you get your money back fast,
03:03and then you'll give a lot to Venezuela
03:06and to the United States after that, okay?
03:08So you'll be in good shape.
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