Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to open areas for oil and gas exploration in the United States, including offshore sites in Alaska, Bloomberg reported.
This is one of the dozens of executive orders signed by President Trump on his first day in the Oval Office after his inauguration on Monday.
Trump repeated his popular saying on his commitment to increasing oil and gas production in the U.S.
“We will drill, baby, drill,” he said in his inauguration speech.
In his executive order on offshore drilling, Trump said his government would refill the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve “right to the top” and “export American energy, all over the world.”
He pledged to boost domestic energy production in the country, and “unleash American energy by ending Biden’s policies of climate extremism, streamlining permitting,” according to a White House summary of plans quoted in a Bloomberg report.
The summary noted that Trump will review for possible reversal “all regulations that impose undue burdens on energy production and use, including mining and processing of non-fuel minerals.”
Former President Joe Biden instituted several policies to fight climate change and discourage the exploration of fossil fuels in the U.S.
- As a first step to demonstrating his commitment to ending the US financing of global climate efforts, Trump withdrew America from the 2015 Paris Agreement.
- The Paris Agreement is a global deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. Almost 200 countries agreed in 2015 to create plans to achieve this goal and to review and improve them every 5 years.
- Trump’s orders also include the termination of subsidies for electric vehicles.
- He also ended state emissions waivers “that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles.”
Should Nigeria be concerned?
Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies are expected to disrupt the global oil market and possibly drive down crude oil prices in the international market.
- There were concerns about supply surpluses last year which forced the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut production in order to control prices and stabilise the market.
- A massive drop in crude oil prices may affect Nigeria’s economy which depends heavily on oil exports. Revenue projection in the 2025 budget is benchmark on the price of crude oil in the global market at $75 per barrel.
However, Oil and Gas expert, Professor Yemi Oke said Nigeria should not be concerned. He urged the government to “increase crude oil production and compete actively with other major producers in the international market.”
What you should know
- Nairametrics reported that Brent futures dipped on the eve of Trump’s inauguration as investors anticipated his pro-fossil fuel stance.
- Investors and analysts also expect Trump to relax sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas industry, allowing free flow of Russia’s oil in the global market.
- The recent fluctuations in the global prices of crude oil affected retail prices of petroleum products in Nigeria. The price of fuel rose to around N1,000 over the weekend.
