Energy Secretary Rick Perry says foreign investment in the U.S. by Mideast energy producers such as Qatar will help meet President Trump’s goal of energy dominance.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity,” Perry said Thursday morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “We’re seeing a lot of interest in the United States, some of it foreign dollars coming into the United States.”
A “prime example” is the Golden Pass project in Texas, where Qatar is partnering with a U.S. company to build a “massive” liquefied natural gas export facility, Perry noted. The U.S. has become a net export of natural gas, and Qatar wants a part of the U.S. booming market, which will compete with Mideast natural gas exports.
Qatar is the world’s second-biggest exporter of natural gas behind Russia.
Perry held talks Wednesday with Saad Sherida al Kaabi, the president and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, the government-owned company that operates all of Qatar’s oil and natural gas activities.
“A lot of infrastructure is going to be built in the United States” and “we’re going to continue to be the world’s leader in the production of oil and gas,” Perry said on CNBC.
Perry also met with the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak Tuesday to discuss keeping the European market competitive for U.S. natural gas as Russia builds a major new pipeline to connect to Europe via Germany.
“Competition is a good thing was basically our message,” Perry said. “[However], we’re going to put our shoulders to task and try to get as much American LNG into the [European] community as we can.”
Perry is shoring up possible markets for U.S. natural gas all this week at the World Gas Conference in Washington, a major conference with about 12,000 attendees.
“Had a great meeting with Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó on bolstering energy security for Hungary & Europe building on principles of the #ThreeSeas Initiative,” Perry tweeted Wednesday. “America is ready to help advance Hungary’s natural gas & energy infrastructure #WGC2018.”
Perry also talked to business and government officials at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington “on the rise of American #LNG exports and the increased energy security that it will bring to our friends around the world,” he tweeted Wednesday.
Before that, he met with U.S. Ambassador to Portugal George Glass at the conference “on how American exports of #LNG are going to open new opportunities between the U.S. and Portugal,” Perry tweeted. “America’s abundance of natural gas is a game-changer for the energy security of Europe.”
