The State Department is looking to overhaul an industry advisory panel on sanctions by dropping the American Petroleum Institute and other oil companies.
“We’re in the process of updating the subcommittee’s membership, and will also be updating our website to reflect those changes,” a State Department official told the Washington Examiner. The panel is under the department’s office for economic growth, energy and the environment.
The sanctions panel is being overhauled as Trump’s decision to re-up sanctions on Iran could create some major problems for energy companies with subsidiaries in the Persian Gulf nation.
A March meeting of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, which houses the sanctions subcommittee, discussed the effects of secondary sanctions as “an ongoing challenge” for energy companies, according to minutes obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Big oil companies such as Shell and Chevron served on the sanctions panel through last year, along with their trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, and dozens of other members across many industry segments.
An API official said the trade group was no longer on the panel. Shell and Chevron have not answered emails for comment.
The official said Walter Retzsch, who represented API on the panel, has left the trade group. The State Department still lists him as the oil group’s representative on the sanctions panel’s webpage.
The panel develops opinions and recommendations for the undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment through Assistant Secretary Manisha Singh’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.
Singh held a meeting of the full economic advisory panel last week, but members of the sanctions subcommittee did not attend.
The meeting focused on the Trump administration “developing a comprehensive Indo-Pacific strategy that will guide U.S. government policy in the region,” according to an agenda obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The bureau envisions leading a public relations campaign that highlights the “positive vision” for U.S. economic engagement in the region, paired with “strategic engagement in key areas,” such as trade, investment, infrastructure, and women’s economic empowerment.
The State Department wants its advisers to provide ideas on ways to raise the profile of U.S. companies in the region, according to the agenda.
