Using American Energy to Drive Growth and Lower Costs

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, Labor Day weekend. The end of the summer. What is this morning is Kyle Hussfite. And Kyle is assistant, no, he’s undersecretary of energy. And so many things are happening in energy right now. I mean, I felt the American people needed an update. Well, Kyle, Mr. Secretary, give the American people an update. The number one item in the

0:26 front burner is Venezuela. What is it, 55 billion, 65 billion barrels of oil?

0:36 Speaker 2 Yes. John, thank you for having me, and happy Labor Day weekend to all the hardworking Americans out there. Exactly right, 65 billion barrels of resource. Our chief dealmaker, President Donald Trump, secured for America to benefit Americans, benefit Venezuelans, and strengthen the entirety of the Western Hemisphere.

1:00 Speaker 1 And that is a lot of oil. I mean, that is a lot of oil. The market value right now, I mean, it’s easier to multiply by 100 is what? $ 65 billion or is it more than that?

1:15 Speaker 2 $ 65 billion times 100 is $ 6. 5 trillion for those barrels. That’s right. And, you know, what’s so unique about this is it comes at no cost to the American taxpayer. And Right now, the world leads the globe in oil and natural gas production by a wide margin. And our approved reserves are 46 billion barrels as a country. So

1:36 to put that in perspective, what the president secured for Americans is more than the entirety of the total oil that’s recoverable in the U.S. right now. So it’s hard to overstate the significance of the deal that our president made for America for the Americas, because when the U.S.

1:56 is involved, it brings a lot more confidence for private investments. So companies, like we saw along with this announcement just this past week, the Secretary was in Venezuela, signing more deals with companies like Chevron, GE, Renova, E & I.

2:10 Countries that see the U.S. involved will send their companies. The U.S.

2:14 Speaker 2 Companies will also go down and invest billions of dollars to produce this incredibly valuable asset. Now, this type of oil is is what drove the construction of refineries in the Gulf Coast region, refineries that were specifically built for this crude slate. Not only does the president have a vision to bring these barrels to market to provide more reliable, affordable,

2:35 secure energy for America, it feeds directly into the system that the U.S. constructed to process this crude to drive prices down for Americans.

2:45 Speaker 1 Now, what period of time do you think it will take– Venezuela to produce that oil to deliver it to America?

2:58 Speaker 2 Right now, Venezuela has already increased in production by about 25% since January 3rd when the president took action. And also since then, the amount of oil coming from Venezuela to the United States has increased by roughly 500,000 barrels per day. The other thing to note is This oil, most of the oil produced in Venezuela is heavy. It’s viscous.

3:24 It’s thick. So to move it, you need to blend it with a lighter oil called a diluent. Prior to January 3rd, the United States was sending very little diluent to Venezuela. Since January 3rd, we’ve averaged over 100,000 barrels per day leaving the U.S. to go blend with that heavy cruise. So you can see the benefit on both sides.

3:43 Regarding the production growth timeline, we expect the production to double by the end of the decade, taking Venezuela from a little over a million barrels a day to over 2 million barrels per day of production.

3:56 Speaker 1 So this is a real, it’s a long-term deal and a commitment to do a long-term deal. And the United States of America has a deal that’s a great deal for America.

4:12 Speaker 2 Exactly right, John. Developing these fields are decadal efforts. It takes time to drill the wells, build the pipelines, and the U.S. being involved from an equity state perspective brings the highest level of confidence for private capital to come in alongside the United States and develop these resources. You need to have certainty and confidence, and that’s exactly what

4:35 the U.S. presence does in this deal that the President struck.

4:39 Speaker 1 Understood. What else do you want to tell the American people? Sunday morning, Labor Day weekend. We have situations in Europe. We have situations in Saudi Arabia, the Strait of Hormuz. What else would you like to talk about? Yeah.

4:58 Speaker 2 First, I’d like to thank all of the hardworking Americans. I hope those who are able to take the time off are enjoying it. I hope you all know that the president fights every single day for each and every American to drive prices down, to provide security for our country.

5:12 And we do that through energy, our energy dominance. People ask, what do we mean by dominance? But I think the most important thing to note is we’re self-sufficient and then some. Before the shale revolution that unlocked billions of barrels of oil, trillions of cubic feet of gas, we were reliant on other countries for our energy. That changed with the shale revolution.

5:35 In 2018, we became net neutral in our energy. production and consumption. And since then, we’ve skyrocketed to the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. 25 years ago, we were importing natural gas. Today, we’re the global leader in natural gas exports through LNG. One of the actions the president took on day one in office

5:55 this term was lifting the harmful pause that Biden put on LNG exports. And since then, we’ve taken to market, we’ve approved more than 20 BCF per day of new LNG exports. And that’s important because it provides over half a million American jobs, high-paying generational jobs that produces– a lot of value for our country, for our economy, but

6:18 it also gives fuel to humans across the world. And we know the strongest correlation to prosperity and longevity is access to energy. So that ties right into what’s going on in Venezuela. Not only is this an amazing deal for Americans, it is an incredible opportunity to help right the wrongs that the last 27 years of the socialist

6:38 government in Venezuela imposed on their people. President Trump is making life better for humans, for allies, for Venezuelans. So this deal will drive billions of dollars, estimated up to $ 100 billion of investment into Venezuela. And a lot of that investment is going to come into U.S. companies to develop these resources, drilling the wells, completing the wells, building

6:58 the pipelines, building the refineries. So the president, day and night, is working tirelessly to fight for Americans, to drive costs down, to ensure that we have a secure and prosperous country. And low energy prices, along with security of supply, support the reindustrialization that the president’s policies are driving back to the U.S. We’re bringing manufacturing back to where it belongs

7:22 in the United States, and we’re able to do that because we can provide the energy with certainty and making it affordable.

7:29 Speaker 1 Understood. Now, I think it was Secretary Vesant that said that in a few years they’re going to make the Strait of Hormuz irrelevant. And would you tell me, was it him that said that?

7:49 Speaker 2 I don’t know who said it, but when there’s a risk to a high-value commodity that the world needs, the market will find alternative pathways to move those barrels. And we’ve seen it since the strait has been restricted. We see roughly 6 million barrels per day of production bypassing the strait. through different pipelines, existing pipelines and increasing the

8:13 throughput through those pipelines. And the longer that there’s risk from the Iranians, the more incentive there will be to buy and build new infrastructure. And that’s what we’re seeing happening. So as you find new pathways that circumvent the strait, absolutely.

8:27 It takes the The risk of the Iranian regime takes that out of the equation completely. And those barrels find a new pathway around the Strait to get to market to provide the energy that the world needs.

8:41 Speaker 1 Secretary Hesfite, anything else you want to tell the American people on a Sunday morning? We talked about the Strait of Hormuz. We talked about Venezuela. The Arctic Ocean, how is that going? I mean, do we have control over it or it’s still– there’s multiple factions trying to get control over it?

9:04 Speaker 2 As you know, the United States has the strongest military in the world by far. Yes. Where the United States wants to be, we have the ability to be there, control it, protect our country. protect our trade routes, and that’s exactly what the president is doing.

9:20 That’s why he is continuing to invest in our military so we have the strongest military in the world. He built it back up in his first term, and he has shown that he’s effectively putting it to use to benefit Americans and the world in his second term.

9:33 Speaker 1 Understood. Well, Secretary Hess, have a great weekend, and enjoy your family, and may peace happen to the world, and may we have lower prices energy prices, and thank you for coming on this Sunday morning.

9:50 Speaker 2 Thanks for having me, John.