‘All hands on deck’: Oil industry rallies to keep Trump from stopping exports

Oil industry executives and White House officials, rattled by President Donald Trump’s growing criticisms of the sector, are making a renewed push to head off any move by the administration to curb U.S. petroleum exports, three people familiar with the effort said.

Industry representatives said the outreach extends to officials on the White House Domestic Policy Council, the National Energy Dominance Council, the Energy Department and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and comes as Trump has shown increasing frustration with stubbornly high fuel prices that could prove a drag on Republicans’ chances to keep control of Congress in this November’s elections.

“There’s an all-hands-on-deck from industry and inside the administration to stave it off,” said an energy industry executive who was granted anonymity to describe discussions. White House officials haven’t formally pitched the idea, “but everyone knows Trump’s gonna Trump,” this person added.

The White House maintains that export restrictions are not under consideration.

“While the President and his entire energy team have taken several actions to mitigate temporary disruptions to the energy market, the Administration has been quite clear: there is no plan to implement restrictions on oil and gas exports,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement.

White House representatives didn’t confirm whether industry lobbyists had reached out to specific agencies or officials to discuss exports. Energy Department representatives didn’t respond to questions.

But while administration officials have assured them since the early days of the Iran war that an export ban was off the table, Trump directing the Justice Department to investigate the oil companies for price gouging in June sent the industry into “Defcon 1,” said the executive.

The industry worries increased after Trump said on Monday that oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron were “making too much money.” Industry executives now fear Trump may try to take a swing against them by limiting fuel exports to foreign countries, a business that’s boomed since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Any move to slow those shipments would also go against the advice of others in the administration, the executive said.

Another industry official said that the industry had reiterated its concerns about export controls to the White House “very recently.”

Iran’s closure of the Hormuz has not only raised the price of crude oil around the world but also forced more countries to turn to the United States as a substitute source of oil and fuel. That has put upward pressure on gasoline prices as American consumers compete with the rest of the world for a suddenly shrunken supply. The shortages don’t seem likely to ease anytime soon.

The Trump administration has already tried several other approaches to bring down prices that had more support from the oil industry, including releasing millions of barrels of oil from the country’s strategic petroleum reserve and temporarily waiving the Jones Act to make it easier for non-American ships to transport oil and natural gas between U.S. ports.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a former oil company CEO, and Vice President JD Vance have repeatedly come out against the idea of limiting or banning exports, people in the industry said. Wright said in May that the administration had “absolutely” ruled out a ban on diesel exports.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in an interview that he is “confident” Trump understands the need to maintain oil exports, noting that the president was urging other nations to buy American oil early in the crisis.

“The administration has repeatedly said that they are opposed to [export controls],” Sommers said. “So I don’t think there’s any change to posture at this point. It’s like honestly every three weeks we have to knock this down.”

Bob McNally, president of energy consulting firm Rapidan Energy, said his understanding is that the White House remains opposed to export restrictions, but his firm still sees a 35 percent chance that the administration’s stance could change in the coming months.

“I know the pressures that build when the walls start to close in — if markets turn very negative. And you can never rule out even options that are now currently understood to be harmful and bad,” said McNally, who served as an energy adviser to former President George W. Bush.

The moment when some sort of White House action on limiting fuel exports “may be getting closer,” consulting firm ClearView Energy wrote to clients on Tuesday, noting that former President Joe Biden considered imposing export restrictions ahead of the 2022 midterms after a “long summer of high gasoline prices” due to the war in Ukraine.

“As a matter of politics, we reiterate that bad ideas rejected in April might get revisited later in the year,” it said.

U.S. crude oil exports have jumped by nearly 30 percent since last year to nearly 3.5 million barrels per day in late July, while shipments of refined products like diesel, gasoline and other types of petroleum have climbed 20 percent to more than 8 million barrels per day.

Export critics argue sending those cargoes abroad leads to higher prices at home, although the oil and gas industry counters that shutting the door to shipments would hurt the domestic market, and cause them to produce less. That would ultimately raise global fuel prices and come back to bite American drivers.

“While export bans may seem politically attractive, they would ultimately have the opposite of the intended effect,” said one refining industry lobbyist who said they had been in contact with the White House on the issue. “Cutting off American exports from international markets will mean less U.S. production, supply squeezes, more upward pressure on domestic prices, and even greater global market disruptions — the last things the White House should want right now.”

Chet Thompson, president and CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, said export controls would force U.S. refiners to produce less gasoline because they would lose trade outlets to ship out other surplus fuels made in the process, such as diesel.

“The administration has, very wisely, steered clear of export bans, because such policies would be harmful to American consumers and the broader global energy market,” Thompson said in a statement to POLITICO. “They would lead to higher prices and less fuel production in the United States, the exact opposite of what we need right now.”

Liberal and progressive groups — sharp critics of Trump’s energy policies — have cheered on the president’s swing against the oil industry and all but dared him to put a lid on fuel exports.

“Like a broken clock that’s correct twice a day, the President is right that oil companies are ‘making too much money,’ which means Trump should endorse a Windfall Profits Tax, with the proceeds distributed to working families to ease energy burdens and arm households with tools to avoid exposure to Big Oil’s price gouging,” Tyson Slocum, energy program director of good governance watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a statement.

“It’s also an opportunity for the President to endorse limits on fossil fuel exports, as they contribute to higher prices for Americans and fatter profits for industry,” he added.

Josh Siegel contributed to this report.