Tim Stewart - President, U.S. Oil & Gas Association Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You know, Texas T six twenty three is their time
here in Houston's wanting to do is we know what
President Trump wants to do. He wants to fill the reserves.
He wants to drill baby drill. But at the end
of the day, it's not really up to him. He's
not an oil operator. He's president of the United States.
The people have to drill are the people who associate
with this guy, Tim Stewart, President of the US Oil

(00:22):
and Gas Association. And of course whether or not you're
going to drill baby drill has a lot to do
with what the profit margins look like.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Right. No, that's true, and we're really grateful for the
President and the moves he's taken. It's made our job
on the set of lands and the offshore much much
easier for the next four years. But you're exactly right, Jimmy,
We've got to be careful to make sure that there's
enough supply that's hitting the market without flooding it. There's
a lot of economics to go into this. It's not
particularly straight straightforward, but we're happy where things are right

(00:51):
now versus where they were six weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, do you feel a little pressure though, because obviously
I main President Trump is giving you exactly what you
want as far as you know, removing regulations, making it
easier for you to do your jobs. He's a he's
a firm supporter, which you haven't had in the White
House in the last four years. So you kind of
have to walk that thin line, don't You kind of
have to reward him for being that kind of president
for you without hurting your profit margin too much.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, exactly, we want to find that Goldilog song. We
want to be able to produce a product at a
price point where companies are making money, but where consumers,
when they're sewing up their tanks, aren't giving it a
second thought. You know, you want to be in this
really interesting situation where you want your customers not to
think about you, but your shareholders to think about you
every day. And so it is a really it's a

(01:39):
very very fine line in which you have to walk.
And so and each each producing basin has a particular
price point as well, and so you can make money
and maybe at fifty dollars in one basement, maybe not that,
maybe at sixty to sixty five dollars in another. So
companies are in a You know, it's a difficult situation,
but we've we have always been in that situation, will

(02:00):
continue to do our best to support that good economic
policy and also a good regulatory policy.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
What is the price of a barrel of oil right
about that?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
I think yesterday was trading about seventy two is what
I saw later in the afternoon. And you know, again
that's a good price point for us. The President is
talking about put in NEXTRA three million barrels a day
get production of the US. That's going to be a
challenge because we've got to figure out where that's going
to come from. You don't want to be importing more
to make up for that. Again, what he can do,

(02:31):
which is we're very appreciative, is he can control that
subtle portion of where that oil and gas is in
the United States onshore and offshore. And that's something that
he's made it very clear that he's going to make
that easier for us to do. We haven't seen that
for four years. And so those suberal lands become more competitive.
I think company are going to really take the risk
to go on them, and particularly go offshore. That's going

(02:51):
to make a big difference. But we need that regulatory
certainly long term, not just for another four years. We've
got to take some of the things he's made in
executive orders and put it into statute, and that will
give the company a certainty.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
That is the key, isn't it. Because any president's only
in power. This one is only going to be a
power for four years, so you only you only know
for sure what the policy is going to be for
the next four years. And I'm guessing if you are
starting from scratch with a piece of federal land, and
you know, and going in there and developing it, how
long of a process is that? How many years does
it take you to develop a particular parcel well offshore?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
You know, it's a ten to fifteen year process. If
you come onto an on shore lease of New Mexico
or Colorado, for example, with some regulatory certainty and some
cutting that red tape, we can be on the ground
and producing within nine to fit nine months to a
year and a half, which is actually a very quick
turnaround time for federal And you live by executive already,

(03:44):
you die by executive order. I think the Democrats learned
that when the last four years, when they tried to
wipe us off the face of the earth. This executive order.
We live through that and get our point is, we've
got to get some of these things. The President Trump
has just used his ten or over the last couple
of weeks. We've got to get that into statue. So
that still holds, not just in twenty twenty five, but

(04:05):
twenty thirty five. Yep.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
So the pressure is on Congress, all right, Tim, thank
you appreciated. President of the US Oil and Gas Association,
Tim Stewart. It's six twenty seven,