US President Donald Trump will meet with U.S. oil executives to discuss possible financial assistance for the industry and tariffs on oil imports from Saudi Arabia, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Saudi Arabia is currently bent on flooding the already saturated oil markets with even more oil after the production cut talks with OPEC and Russia fell through. Saudi Arabia is now producing more than 12 million barrels per day, according to Reuters sources, even though oil demand has dropped off a cliff in recent weeks.
The meeting will take place on Friday at the White House, and will include executives from Chevron, Exxon, and Occidental Petroleum, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The U.S. Shale industry has fallen on hard times, caught between the oversupply and the drop off in demand, and the low gasoline prices are a lousy consolation prize to the Administration that has touted America’s growing energy independence.
U.S. lawmakers have expressed growing concern for the U.S. oil industry, urging the President to levy tariffs on OPEC’s oil. The Texas Railroad Commission has even thrown out the idea of its own production cuts to producers in the state.
The idea of a tariff has been proposed by Senators Roger Wicker and Jim Inhofe, who cited national security as a reason to slap tariffs on foreign oil.
The talks about the tariff come after the United States said it might join oil production talks between Russia and Saudi Arabia. According to President Trump, Saudi Arabia and Russia were discussing the issue. Trump also said that he had separate conversations with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
WTI has been trading around $20 over the last week.
