President Donald Trump is set to sit down with oil executives at the White House Wednesday afternoon, amid concern about the impact Trump's trade war is having on oil drilling in Texas and other states.
Oil lobbyists have been pressing the Trump administration to back off tariffs that are already driving up the price of steel used to build oil wells and tariffs set to take effect next month against Mexico and Canada that are expected to raise the price of the oil imported by refineries along the Gulf Coast.
In December, the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's largest lobbying group, sent a memo to Trump's transition team warning of financial risks with tariffs.
"Tariffs on crude oil, natural gas, or refined products would directly undermine energy affordability and availability for consumers while eroding the U.S. oil and natural gas industry’s competitiveness both domestically and globally," they wrote.
The meeting, the first between Trump and oil executives since he took office, was called to discuss the administration's plans to "unleash American energy dominance," a White House spokesperson said. Energy Secretary Christopher Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are scheduled to attend, along with 15 energy executives.
API, the trade group, declined to say which oil companies would be meeting with the president, but Bloomberg News reported Wednesday that executives from Houston-based oil and gas companies including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Apache, Occidental Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Baker Hughes would be there.
"President Trump’s energy agenda has set our nation on a path toward energy dominance," API spokesperson Bethany Williams said in a statement.
Behind the scenes, oil executives have become increasingly nervous about some of Trump's moves on energy policy.
Trump campaigned on the promise of lowering American's energy costs by 50% in his first year in office. And Wright has talked about the possibility of achieving a $50 per barrel oil price, below the level oil executives say most U.S. drilling projects are profitable.
At the same time, Trump has repeatedly criticized clean energy tax credits that many oil and gas are relying on to develop new carbon storage and clean hydrogen projects, in line with global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Oil prices have fallen 12% since Trump took office, with the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate closing at $66.90 a barrel Tuesday.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/article/oil-meeting-trump-tariffs-20229907.php
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