API Joins White House Meeting on State of the Energy Industry

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2020 — 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. Our more than 600 members produce, process and distribute most of the nation’s energy. The industry supports more than ten 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 our first 100 years, API has developed more than 700 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.

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