Leaders of at least five Texas-based oil and gas companies reportedly were in Washington, D.C., April 3 to attend a meeting at the White House with President Trump and Dan Brouillette, secretary of the Department of Energy, about the government’s response to declining prices and market demand. Texas-based companies represented included Hilcorp Energy, Occidental Petroleum and Phillips 66 of Houston, ExxonMobil of Irving and Energy Transfer Partners of Dallas. After the meeting Brouillette said the federal government will purchase 30 million barrels of crude oil for the nation’s petroleum reserve, and the Department of Energy said it will make 30 million barrels of space available in its reserve for U.S. companies to store surplus oil.
Speculation of a cut of 10 million to 15 million barrels a day in global production by OPEC is unlikely to return oil markets to $60 a barrel, according to Houston Chronicle, “but it could be a lifeline for smaller producers, who tend not to have the money to withstand an extended price shock as their larger competitors.” Cactus Schroeder, owner of Chisholm Exploration in Abilene, told the Chronicle, “I think it would help us. There’s going to be nobody left in the oil patch if they don’t do something really quickly.”