Oil executives meet with Trump, discuss permitting but not prices

(Bloomberg) – Oil executives pressed for faster permitting — and didn’t discuss concerns about falling crude prices — during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. 

The more than hour-long session brought Trump, an unabashed champion of American oil and gas might, face to face with more than a dozen executives eager to help shape the president’s “energy dominance” agenda. 

Executives praised Trump’s early moves to approve natural gas export licenses and unwind regulations that have raised the industry’s operational costs. The backdrop for the meeting, however, was mounting concern about the president’s plan to slash energy prices, potentially to levels that could make some domestic production unprofitable. On Wednesday, West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, closed at $67.16 per barrel, down from $75.89 Trump’s first full day in the White House this year.

Still, in the meeting, “there was really no discussion on price,” Burgum said, emphasizing that’s “set by supply and demand,” and “there’s nothing we can say in that room that would change that one iota.”

Instead, the group focused heavily on the need to speed up permitting times and ensure project approvals have lasting durability. While some moves to streamline permitting can be achieved administratively by the executive branch, oil industry leaders have emphasized the importance of getting those changes passed by Congress and enshrined into law. 

“We did talk a lot about permitting, because one of the things that this industry has faced is the onslaught of regulation that really had one goal in mind: trying to drive their business out of business,” Burgum said. In story after story, Burgum said he and Energy Secretary Chris Wright heard how “the permitting process takes longer than the actual building process on critical infrastructure in our country.”

Ahead of the meeting, participants were set to include chief executives from across the spectrum of the industry, including integrated oil companies (Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Shell Plc, bp Plc, ConocoPhillips, Hess Corp.); independent producers (Diamondback Energy Inc., APA Corp’s Apache, Occidental Petroleum Corp., Continental Resources Inc.); refiners (Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Phillips 66); a pipeline operator (Enbridge Inc.) and an oil field service firm (Baker Hughes Co.). A final participant list was not immediately available Wednesday afternoon. 

Energy Secretary Chris Wright dismissed talk of a possible $50 price target for crude. “I don’t think I’ve mentioned $50 oil before,” Wright said. “I’ve always said all commodities are supply and demand.” However, Wright added, the federal government can “do everything we can to get barriers out of the way to grow supply,” which will naturally push prices down. 

That’s already happening, Wright said, as the Trump administration embarks on a deregulation agenda that could enhance demand for fossil fuels while lowering the cost of producing oil and natural gas. “We’ve seen prices come down a little bit already in anticipation that it’s going to be easier to produce energy in the United States and it’s going to be lower risk.”