President-elect Donald J. Trump and oil and gas executives have championed each other. But his victory may prove to be a mixed blessing for the industry.
The former president’s return to the White House is likely to usher in more permissive regulations that let companies drill more on federal land and ship more natural gas overseas.
Yet commodity prices and corporate profits could well fall if Mr. Trump pursues policies that send American oil and gas production — the highest in the world — higher still. The former president has urged companies to “drill, baby, drill” and pledged to cut energy bills by at least half, without specifying how he would do so.
Oil executives acknowledge that prospect but say the risk that prices fall during Mr. Trump’s second term is worth accepting if he makes it easier for them to sell energy to other countries and finds ways to increase demand for oil and natural gas.
“We’re willing to trade short-term downside for long-term certainty,” said Steve Pruett, chief executive of Elevation Resources, an oil and gas producer in Texas, who voted for Mr. Trump.
U.S. oil prices fell Wednesday morning before recovering their losses by the end of the day as traders struggled to figure out what effect Mr. Trump’s election would ultimately have on the industry. The stock market issued a clearer verdict: An index of domestic oil and gas stocks, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, climbed more than 5 percent.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.pwbet gaming