American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers issued the following statement regarding today's meeting between President Trump, administration officials and executives representing U.S. natural gas and oil companies. Sommers attended the meeting with API member companies.
"We
appreciated the opportunity to meet with President Trump today and
thank him for his leadership during these difficult times. We had a
substantive discussion on the challenges
facing the U.S. natural gas and oil industry – from producers and
shippers to pipeline operators and refiners – and energy’s essential
role in accelerating our nation’s future economic recovery.
"We thanked the president for his support for the men and women of our
industry working to ensure Americans have the energy they need to power
their homes, TVs, and phones and underscored our commitment to helping
the communities where we operate and all Americans
on the front lines of this crisis. Our focus – as an industry of
problem solvers – is on meeting America’s and the world’s energy needs,
and we know they will only increase as our nation gets through this
unprecedented time and emerges stronger.
"We are encouraged by the President’s strong diplomacy with Saudi Arabia
and Russia, and we are optimistic further progress will be made in the
days ahead. No one wins in a price war, and the Saudis and the Russians
aren’t benefiting from their decisions. We
also urged the administration to avoid U.S. policies that could do more
harm than good for American producers.
"Although further challenges remain, the current energy market
disruptions are driven by historic drops in demand, and as with other
industries, the best way for ours to recover is to reinforce federal
efforts to defeat this virus and enable demand stabilization."
API represents all segments of America’s oil and natural gas industry. Its more than 600 members produce, process, and distribute most of the nation’s energy. The industry supports 10.9 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization. In its first 100 years, API has developed more than 700 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.
