US energy secretary promises executives faster industry development

By Arathy Somasekhar and Liz Hampton

HOUSTON, March 9 (Reuters) – In one of his first meetings with oil and gas executives since being confirmed as U.S. energy secretary, Chris Wright said he intended to speed up permitting and support the industry, attendees told Reuters.

His comments, made at a dinner ahead of the world’s largest energy industry gathering in Houston, were in line with President Donald Trump’s push to maximize U.S. oil and gas production.

“They’re in a hurry,” said Bob Dudley, former CEO of British oil major BP, told Reuters as he exited the dinner.

“They don’t want things to be slowed by years and years and years of permitting. The world needs to move fast, and the United States is known as being a very slow country.”

Dudley, who now chairs the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, an industry-led organization that aims to accelerate the response to climate change, added he anticipated an emphasis on nuclear development and faster permitting from Wright.

The world’s energy industry leaders are gathering against the backdrop of plummeting oil prices that may undermine the administration’s “drill, baby, drill” policy agenda. Top U.S. energy companies have already announced thousands of job cuts this year.

U.S. oil and gas output was already at record levels before Trump took power, and there is little incentive to pump more with prices hovering near their lowest in three years. It has become a tradition in recent years for executives from the U.S. shale industry to meet for a private dinner as the conference gets underway.

Sunday’s dinner included U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, as well as CEOs from Baker Hughes, Occidental Petroleum, TotalEnergies, Williams Companies , Petrobras, EQT Corp and Gunvor Group Ltd.

In the past, those dinners had included representation from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Wright, who formerly ran a Denver, Colorado-based hydraulic fracturing company, declined to comment when leaving the dinner. He will address the conference on Monday.

The discussion at the dinner also focused on energy production and the structure of the new government energy dominance council, said Dan Brouillette, who was the U.S. energy secretary during Trump’s first term.

Tariffs, which have roiled oil markets as Trump has implemented and then paused levies on neighboring Canada and Mexico, were not discussed, said several attendees.

Trump’s protectionist trade policies have shaken markets due to concern the policies will impact economic growth and lower demand for oil. (Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar, Liz Hampton and Rich Valdmanis in Houston; Writing by Liz Hampton; Editing by Jamie Freed)