I’m guessing that someone failed to pay off Chad’s big guy.
1) What assets? Some drilling rigs and pumps? Or do they mean the oil under the ground? Imagine nationalizing oil under your own ground. Why did Exxon ever think it owned that?
2) The VAST majority of oil AND oil companies of the world are nationalized. Saudi Aramco, Equinor (Norway), Petro China, Pemex, Rosneft . . . these account for a huge % of oil production/extraction in the world. Nationalizing “assets” is not worth a headline. It’s normal.
3) Why doesn’t Exxon explore in the US? No. It’s not all that political. It’s geological. We’ve been flowing oil for well over 100 years. How long did people think that could go on?
And before the wacko chorus arrives about oil replenishing itself, sit back and wonder why, in 1920, oil fields drilled down a few hundred or a thousand feet and got gushers — but now you need a 20 story tall ocean platform with an engine to drive you to where you’re needed, to drill down MILES of depth, to get the same flow in barrels/day. You think people spend that kind of money because they want to?
Go ask them, why don’t you go to those fields from 1920 and pump replenished oil? They’ll tell you . . . well, those wells are capped and abandoned, but if you’d like to buy them and produce this imagined replenished oil yourself, I’ll give you a good price on the well.