US president Donald Trump's administration is pushing for lower oil prices but has set no specific price target and expects to bring more supply into the market through deregulation and permitting reform, US energy secretary Chris Wright says.
"We certainly believe it's in the best interest of the American people, and honestly, the citizens of the world to have lower oil prices," Wright said on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston. But he added that "I won't have a specific price" and that "the actions of this administration are to make it easier to produce more oil and natural gas for the producers, and therefore you get more investment."
Unlike Wright, a former oil industry executive who has taken over the Department of Energy under Trump, other senior advisers to Trump have referred to $50/bl as a preferable oil price target. Those include treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Trump's call on Opec to "bring down the price of oil" preceded the producer group's decision last week to proceed with plans to gradually return 2.2mn b/d of supply to the market.
"We're pleased, of course, to see Opec returning barrels to the marketplace," Wright said, but he added that the US has made no "specific requests or demands".
Climate change as "side effect"
Wright, in a speech before the general CERAWeek audience, pounded on former president Joe Biden's administration for allegedly ignoring the concerns of the US oil and gas industry and basing its energy sector decisions on what Wright called "irrational, quasi-religious climate policies".
Wright called climate change a "side effect" of economic development. "Everything in life involves trade-offs," he said.
The potential benefits of Biden-era climate policies were not worth the "endless sacrifices on our citizens", Wright said. "The Trump administration intends to be much more scientific and mathematically literate."
Wright's spirited defense of oil and gas and denunciation of climate change policies drew some applause from the audience.
Still, the rapid pace of change in the US energy policy every four years is "not the right policy approach," Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth said at CERAWeek.
The Trump administration's executive actions affecting the energy sector need to be backed by legislation that makes permitting reform possible, Wirth said.
Wright acknowledged a possible contradiction between Trump's vision for lower oil prices and more output, but said that enabling more investment and new infrastructure would address that dilemma.
"It's not just 'drill baby drill', it's also 'build baby build'," Wright said.
Nasser supports transition
Speaking at a separate panel, Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser echoed many of the same themes raised by Wright, including the claim that the energy transition did not address the needs of the world's poorest citizens in the emerging economies.
But, unlike Wright who appeared to disparage solar and offshore wind resources, Nasser said that Saudi Arabia's energy transformation will make good use of renewable energy sources and will continue to aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Trump's administration surprised the US oil and gas industry on 4 March by proceeding with plans to impose a 10pc tax on Canadian energy imports and a 25pc tax on energy imports from Mexico. Trump lifted the tariffs on 7 March but has said he may bring them back on 2 April.
"We have, behind closed doors, vigorous debates about tariffs, people arguing all sides of that," Wright said. "What is the ultimate outcome going to be? We don't know for sure."
