Executives embrace the administration’s tone at Houston’s CERAWeek conference — but views on prices may cause friction down the line.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he wants to reverse what he called a “very poor direction in energy policy.”Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg
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Welcome to our guide to the commodities markets powering the global economy. Today, Senior Executive Editor Will Kennedy conveys the mood from the first day of global oil and gas get-together CERAWeek.
CERAWeek’s opening sermon was delivered by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and his paean to fossil fuels was greeted with by the Houston congregation.
The Biden administration had a “quasi-religious” take on climate change, he said, and Wright – the former boss of a shale driller — promised the Trump administration would pivot back to oil and gas.
Executives were happy to embrace the “drill, baby, drill” vibe. Amin Nasser, the chief of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, argued in fairly blunt terms the energy transition had failed.
“As the fictions of the promised transition finally washes away, there is an historic opportunity to change course,” Nasser said.
Mike Wirth, the boss of Chevron Corp., said cheap energy was vital to lift hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people out of poverty.
But setting aside the lack of attention on the climate impact of burning more and more fossil fuels, there’s a big problem for the oil industry in President Donald Trump’s energy policy: prices.
Wright speaking during the 2025 CERAWeek by S&P Global conference.Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg
Wright wouldn’t be drawn on the oil price he wanted to see, but in recent weeks, officials have said they’re looking for cheaper energy to mitigate the inflationary impact of tariffs.
They’ve put pressure on the OPEC+ group to increase output, and Wright said he welcomed its recent to decision to gradually return barrels to the market.
US benchmark crude prices have already dropped about 8% this year to $66 a barrel. A further decline would put real pressure on some producers.
Take Aramco. Last week, it announced it was , a key source of income for the Saudi government. Or BP Plc, which based a pivotal strategy reset on Brent prices above $70 a barrel.
Nobody’s predicting a collapse, but the mood on prices is gently bearish. Russell Hardy, the CEO of Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trader, said crude is likely to trade in a slightly lower range than the recent past, somewhere between $60 and $80 a barrel.
For all the Trump administration’s friendliness toward the oil and gas industry, diverging ideas on prices may cause friction down the line.
—Will Kennedy, Bloomberg News
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