US Energy Chief Chris Wright Talks China Tariffs, US Energy Production
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Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. So here's the latest this morning. China raising tariffs to 125% on all U.S. goods after the White House clarified China faces a 145% tariff rate on exports to the United States. I'm pleased to say that joining us now is the 17th United States Secretary of Energy, self-described energy nerd turned entrepreneur.

entrepreneur now dedicating his time to public services. Mr Secretary, Chris Wright, thank you very much for joining Bloomberg Surveillance this morning. We appreciate your time. We just wanted an initial reaction from you to the terrorists we heard retaliated by China overnight. What's your reaction this morning, sir?

Oh, I think you see we're right in the midst of a negotiation. This is home territory for President Trump, both in his business career and his first term as president. You know, he reads the marketplace, he engages with people, he uses leverage, and we're going to get to a great result. We're seeing the midst of it right now, but I'm quite optimistic about where we're going.

Well, the United States has already slashed its forecast for global oil demand. If we continue on this path of a trade war, do you expect demand to continue to decelerate?

Their prediction of the demise of demand growth for oil is older than I am. So, look, there are cyclical factors on economic growth that do impact that. The long-term growth rate of oil, a little more than a million barrels of oil per day per year has been going on for decades. I don't see any big change in that in the foreseeable future.

You see a marketplace right now that is worried about economic growth, and I think you're seeing some softening in oil prices from that. But I think that fear is misplaced.

I think we're going to end out in a better economic situation than we went into this Trump term, I think by a long shot. Look, two things are driving tariff policy for President Trump. One is we've been very welcoming to exports from other nations. We want other nations to be just as welcoming of U.S. exports so we can grow our exports more in line with our imports.

And President Trump wants to see America re-industrialized, investment, jobs, and heavy industry back in our country. Both those are going to be wonderful for the United States. Well, it's not just a softening of oil prices. Mr. Secretary, I'm sure you've seen that since Trump's inauguration, prices are down.

more than ten dollars at what level do you think you can see cool drill baby drills the president likes to call it when it comes to shell producers to what we're hearing is that they cannot do this if prices fall below fifty dollars a barrel

Yeah, look, investment decisions of oil and gas companies in the U.S. and abroad are based on a little bit of multi-year view of oil and gas prices. They're not moved based on the spot price of oil today or oil last week or oil next week. So these are longer-term decisions that are being made. We saw oil and gas prices move down immediately after President Trump was elected.

And that was the market seeing, oh yes, all the nonsense that's tried to kill the oil and gas industry, promised it'll be over soon, stop giving permits on federal lands, all that stuff is going away. And so there's much more of a green light on production. So if you put more supply into a marketplace, you're going to get lower prices. Now we're seeing, as I said, that sort of

extra fear of world economic growth in the next few months over the tariff dialogue. That's real fear. But I think the marketplace may be discounting the wrong answer here. We're going to see very, very positive economic growth in the next few years. But is it still realistic to be talking about adding, the United States adding another three million barrels of production at these prices?

Well, I think you're referring to Scott Besson's plan there. And his three millions was three million barrels of oil equivalent. Most of that growth will come from natural gas. And of course, the domestic demand for natural gas with the growth of AI, resourcing, manufacturing, and our surging exports. Boy, yes, we will grow exponentially.

oil equivalent production by at least that much during the president's term. But we will also grow oil production and other liquid, natural gas, liquid production in the United States as well. So absolutely. Are we going to see strong growth in American energy production? 100%.

Mr. Secretary, you've been on a tour in the Middle East for about two weeks. It's our understanding that before Saudi Arabia decided to add even more barrels to the market, there was a conversation, a dialogue between the Trump administration and the kingdom. Can you give us a sense of what that dialogue looked like? Is the United States supportive of OPEC Plus adding more barrels to this market?

Yeah, we don't directly coordinate on oil production policies or whatever. That's certainly an OPEC's purview. But I don't think anyone in the world misunderstands President Trump's desire to see more energy produced, therefore lower prices and more economic activity. Absolutely, that's President Trump's agenda. Look, his agenda can be summarized as prosperity at home and peace abroad.

Lower oil prices help both of those. And the peace abroad that's of most concern right now in the region where I am in the Middle East is Iran. Iran, during the Biden administration, oil prices were higher. There was sort of an appeasement attitude and no strong enforcement of sanctions. Enormous funding to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to the Houthis, and a rapid advancement of their nuclear program. President Trump's agenda is exactly the opposite of that.

It's peace through strength, but we simply cannot and will not accept a nuclear-armed Iran. Well, when it comes to Iran, we saw even more sanctions on the regime yesterday when it comes to these oil sanctions. The president has said he wants to go back to maximum pressure. Is that part of the conversation you're having with Gulf allies on this tour, that they'd be willing to step in if some of those Iranian barrels come off the market?

Well, fortunately, just from the United States production itself and the size of the global oil market today, absolutely we can tolerate squeezing out Iranian exports. And of course, do all the Gulf neighbors want the same thing we want? Yes. Do they fear a nuclear-armed Iran?

Absolutely. Do they think now is the time to turn the screws and end Iran's nuclear weapons program? Absolutely. But yeah, can the world tolerate that? Absolutely. 10 years ago, 20 years ago, could this have happened? No. But today we both have large American oil production, better relations with our neighbors, and a strong, resolute leader. In 40 years of trouble, 45 years of trouble from Iran, we've never had a better chance.

to reduce Iranian power, reduce Iranian tyranny in the Middle East. And we don't want to miss that opportunity. Mr. Secretary, the president has said a lot, even recently to me on Air Force One. He likes that gas oil prices are coming down. Do you and the president have a price in mind?

No, I think my whole life I've avoided predicting prices or dictating prices. You know, we have a wonderful free market economy. That's what makes the world wealthier. That's what allows consumers to continually re-express choices in every direction. So no, there's no formula for a good oil price. There's just a broader belief that lower cost diesel, lower cost gasoline, lower cost home heating, lower cost electricity, all of those are good for American consumers and good for businesses.

That's President Trump's energy agenda, and I'm here to implement it. Mr. Secretary, appreciate your time this morning, this evening where you are. Thank you very much for being with Bloomberg TV. The Energy Secretary there, Chris Wright.

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