President Donald Trump said Friday at the White House that he would consider helping the oil industry, vowing to make sure that the United States remained oil independent.
“We will make the energy business great again,” he said. “And we want to remain independent.”
Trump spoke to reporters about the oil industry after signing another economic rescue bill for Americans suffering under the coronavirus.
“I want to help that industry, that industry got unnecessarily hurt by massive amounts of oil being produced by very big oil-producing countries and they got carried away,” Trump said.
The president noted that there were billions of barrels sitting in tankers all over the world, as global economies dramatically reduced their oil consumption.
“Every tanker is loaded up with oil sitting out on the ocean,” Trump said. “Oil is less than water, nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”
West Texas Intermediate crude oil, a benchmark for American oil prices, rose to $16.50 a barrel on Thursday after crude oil for May delivery fell to negative $37.63 per barrel on Tuesday.
“I’m an energy person. I love the energy business,” Trump said. “We’re energy independent, I want to stay that way.”
The president again said he would work on topping off the National Strategic Petroleum reserves, with oil prices at an all-time low, but indicated that prices would increase after more countries started using more oil.
“Once this straightens out, and once you get some demand and then you’re gonna reduce the supply a little bit it’ll equalize and be great again,” he said.