White House oil exec meeting focused on more storage

President Donald Trump told oil executives gathered at the White House he wants to find new "very big" locations to stash surplus crude as a way to keep oil workers employed.

Trump made those remarks during a meeting held today, four weeks into a collapse in oil prices. Trump did not discuss during a public portion of the meeting any policy options the US is considering for its oil sector, but said he thinks Saudi Arabia crown prince Mohammad bin Salman and Russian president Vladimir Putin are likely to reach an agreement on production cuts.

"I think president Putin and the [Saudi] crown prince want something to happen badly," Trump said. "Certainly terrible for them what is happening."

During the meeting Trump said he wanted to pass an infrastructure bill, but much of his public remarks focused on oil storage. Trump ordered US energy secretary Dan Brouillette to "check out" other areas to store oil, including areas that are "very big" and larger than existing storage facilities.

"You would think you would want to fill up every cavity that we have in this country," Trump said. "At these prices it would be good, it would keep everybody working."

US oil executives at the meeting largely praised Trump as television cameras rolled. ExxonMobil chief executive Darren Woods and refiner Phillips 66 chief executive Greg Garland lauded him for his leadership. Devon Energy chief executive David Hager said Trump was the "right man at the right time to balance all the priorities."

US independent Continental Resources executive chairman Harold Hamm thanked Trump for his "friendship" with the Saudi crown prince and Putin. "I know those [relationships] have not been easy sometimes, but at this time it was particularly needed," he said.

It is unclear how seriously Trump is considering the idea of finding new areas to store oil outside of the federal government's main storage facilities that make up the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has about 77mn bl of spare capacity that will soon be leased to industry. But Trump appears fixated on the issue of oil storage.

"Every ship is loaded to the gills, sitting out someplace in the ocean," Trump told reporters yesterday.

Trump on 1 April noted there are "massive tankers" all over the sea being used for storage. The previous day he remarked on the widespread use of older tankers for floating storage, as onshore storage fills up.

"Ships that were dying that weren't doing well and now, like, that is where they are storing oil," Trump said on 31 March.

The US Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment on whether it is looking for new storage locations.

The use of tankers to store crude is growing globally while onshore companies are eyeing the use of rail cars and even pipelines to store crude.

By Chris Knight