Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. So here's the asis
Speaker 1: this morning. China raising tariffs to one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: five percent on all US goods after the White House
Speaker 1: clarified China faces a one hundred and forty five percent
Speaker 1: tariff ray on exports to the United States. I'm pleased
Speaker 1: to say that joining us now is the seventeenth United
Speaker 1: States Secretary of Energy, self described energy nerd turned entrepreneur
Speaker 1: now dedicated his time to public services. Miss the Secretary,
Speaker 1: Chris Wright, thank you very much for joining Bloomberg's surveillance
Speaker 1: this morning. We appreciate your time. We just wanted an
Speaker 1: initial reaction from you to the tariffs we heard retaliated
Speaker 1: by China overnight. What's your reaction this morning, Sir.
Speaker 2: Oh, I think you see we're right in the midst
Speaker 2: of a negotiation. This is home territory for President Trump,
Speaker 2: both in his business career and his first term as president.
Speaker 2: You know, he reads the marketplace, he engages with people,
Speaker 2: he uses leverage, and we're going to get to a
Speaker 2: great result. We're seeing in the midst of it right now,
Speaker 2: but I'm quite optimistic about where we're going.
Speaker 3: Well, the United States has already slash it's forecast for
Speaker 3: global oil demand. If we continue on this path of
Speaker 3: a trade war, do you expect demand to continue to decelerate?
Speaker 2: Oh, Their prediction of the demise of demand growth for
Speaker 2: oil is older than I am. So Look, there's cyclical
Speaker 2: factors on economic growth that do impact that. The long
Speaker 2: term growth rate of oil little more than a million
Speaker 2: barrels of oil per day per year, has been going
Speaker 2: on for decades. I don't see any big change in
Speaker 2: that and the foreseeable future. You see a marketplace right
Speaker 2: now that is worried about economic growth, and I think
Speaker 2: you're seeing some softening and oil prices from that. But
Speaker 2: I think that fear. I think that fear is misplaced.
Speaker 2: I think we're going to end out in a better
Speaker 2: economic situation than we went into this Trump term, I
Speaker 2: think by a long shot. Look, two things are driving
Speaker 2: tariff policy for President Trump. One is we've been very
Speaker 2: welcome to exports from other nations. We want other nations
Speaker 2: to be just as welcoming of US exports so we
Speaker 2: can grow our exports more in line with our imports.
Speaker 2: And President Trump wants to see America reindustrialize, investment, jobs,
Speaker 2: and heavy industry back in our country. Both those are
Speaker 2: going to be wonderful for the United States.
Speaker 3: Well, it's not just a softening of oil prices, mister secretary.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you've seen that since Trump's inauguration, prices are
Speaker 3: down more than ten dollars. At what level do you
Speaker 3: think you can see drill baby drills? The President likes
Speaker 3: to call it when it comes to shale producers, because
Speaker 3: what we're hearing is that they cannot do this if
Speaker 3: price is fall below fifty dollars a barrow.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Look, investment decisions of oil and gas companies in the
Speaker 2: US and abroad are based on a little bit of
Speaker 2: multi year view of oil and gas prices. They're not
Speaker 2: moved based on the spot price of oil today, or
Speaker 2: oil last week or oil next week. So these are
Speaker 2: longer term decisions that are being made. We saw oil
Speaker 2: and gas prices move down immediately after President Trump was elected,
Speaker 2: and that was the market seeing, oh yes, all the
Speaker 2: nonsense that's tried to kill the oil and gas industry,
Speaker 2: promised it'll be over soon, stopped giving permits on federal lands.
Speaker 2: All that stuff is going away, and so there's much
Speaker 2: more of a green light on production so if you
Speaker 2: put more supply into a marketplace, you're going to get
Speaker 2: lower prices. Now we're seeing, as they said, that sort
Speaker 2: of extra fear of world economic growth in the next
Speaker 2: few months over the tariff dialogue. That's real fear, But
Speaker 2: I think the marketplace may be discounting the wrong answer here.
Speaker 2: We're going to see very very positive economic growth in
Speaker 2: the next few years, But is it still realistic?
Speaker 3: Were talking about adding the United States adding another three
Speaker 3: million barrels of production at these prices.
Speaker 2: Well, I think you're referring to Scott Besson's plan there,
Speaker 2: and his three millions was three million barrels of oil equivalent.
Speaker 2: Most of that growth will come from natural gas, and
Speaker 2: of course the domestic demand for natural gas with the
Speaker 2: growth of AI resourcing, manufacturing, and our surging exports. Boy, yes,
Speaker 2: we will grow oil equivalent production by at least that
Speaker 2: much during President's term, but we will also grow oil
Speaker 2: production and other liquid natural gas liquid production in the
Speaker 2: United States as well. So absolutely are we going to
Speaker 2: see strong growth in American energy production one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: Mister Secretary, You've been on a tour in the Middle
Speaker 3: East for about two weeks since our understanding that before
Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia decided to add even more barrels to the market,
Speaker 3: there was a conversation, a dialogue between the Trump administration
Speaker 3: and the Kingdom. Can you give us a sense of
Speaker 3: what the dialogue looked like. Is the United States supportive
Speaker 3: of OPEC plus adding more barrels to this market.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't directly coordinate on oil production policies or whatever.
Speaker 2: That's certainly an OPEX purview. But I don't think anyone
Speaker 2: in the world misunderstands President Trump's desire to see more
Speaker 2: energy produced, therefore lower prices and more economic activity. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: that's President Trump's agenda. Look at his agenda can be
Speaker 2: summarized as prosperity at home and piece abroad. Lower oil
Speaker 2: prices help both of those, and the piece abroad that's
Speaker 2: the most concern right now. In the region where I
Speaker 2: am in the Middle East is Iran. Iran. Over during
Speaker 2: the Biden administration, oil prices were higher. There was sort
Speaker 2: of an appeasement attitude and no strong enforcement of sanctions,
Speaker 2: enormous funding de Hamas to Hezbollah, to the Huthis, and
Speaker 2: a rapid advancement of their nuclear program. President Trump's agenda
Speaker 2: is exactly the opposite of that. It's peace through strength.
Speaker 2: But we simply cannot and will not accept a nuclear
Speaker 2: armed Iran.
Speaker 3: Well, when it comes to Ron, we saw even more
Speaker 3: sanctions on the regime yesterday. When it comes to these
Speaker 3: oil sanctions, the President has said he wants to go
Speaker 3: back to maximum pressure. Is that part of the conversation
Speaker 3: you're having with golf allies on this tour that they'd
Speaker 3: be willing to step in if some of those Iranian
Speaker 3: barrels come off.
Speaker 2: The market just from the United States production itself and
Speaker 2: the size of the global oil market today. Absolutely, we
Speaker 2: can tolerate squeezing out Iranian exports that And of course
Speaker 2: do all the Gulf neighbors want the same thing we want?
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Do they fear a nuclear armed Iran? Absolutely? Do they
Speaker 2: think now is the time to turn the screws and
Speaker 2: end Iran's nuclear weapons program? Absolutely? But yeah, can the
Speaker 2: world tolerate that? Absolutely? Ten years ago, twenty years ago,
Speaker 2: could this have happened? No? But today we both have
Speaker 2: large American oil production, better relations with our neighbors, and
Speaker 2: a strong resolute leader. In forty years of trouble, forty
Speaker 2: five years of trouble from Iran. We've never had a
Speaker 2: better chance to reduce Iranian power, reduce Iranian tyranny in
Speaker 2: the Middle East, and we don't want to miss that opportunity.
Speaker 3: Mister Secretary. The President has said a lot, even recently
Speaker 3: to me on Air Force One. He likes that. Guess
Speaker 3: oil prices are coming down. Do you and the President
Speaker 3: have a price in.
Speaker 2: No, my whole life, I've avoided predicting prices or dictating prices.
Speaker 2: You know, we have a wonderful free market economy. That's
Speaker 2: what makes the world wealthier. That's what allows consumers to
Speaker 2: continually re express choices in every direction. So no, there's
Speaker 2: no formula for a good oil price. There's just a
Speaker 2: broader belief that lower cost diesel, lower cost gasoline, lower
Speaker 2: cost home heating, lower cost electricity, all of those are
Speaker 2: good for American consumers and good for businesses. That's President
Speaker 2: Trump's energy agenda, and I'm here to implement it.
Speaker 1: Miss the Secretary, appreciate your time this morning, this evening way.
Speaker 1: You thank you very much for being with blimpbacks Tava.
Speaker 1: The Energy Secretary there, Chris Wright,