President Trump found a warm welcome from the CEO of the Paris-based oil company Total upon arriving at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.
Patrick Pouyanne, the chairman and CEO of the world’s fourth-largest oil company, told Trump that the company plans to increase investment in the U.S. in light of the president’s new tax reform bill.
“We invest around $15 billion each year, and at least $1 billion as an average in the U.S. … and even we will do more with your tax reform,” said Pouyanne at a reception Thursday night.
Total is an international energy firm based in France, but the company now does a lot of its business in the United States, Pouyanne told Trump.
“We do almost everything in your country,” he said. “We produce oil, we explore. We are just making a big discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, oil discovery. We produce gas in Texas. We are investing in an energy plant in Louisiana to export gas from the U.S.”
Every point the CEO made reinforced a piece of Trump’s energy dominance agenda, including his goal to expand oil and gas development both on land and at sea, and to export natural gas abroad.
Total announced earlier this week that it signed an agreement with the offshore drilling outfit Samson, which holds a 12.5 percent interest in the Anchor discovery, “one of the most significant recent discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico,” according to the company.
Pouyanne even seemed happy with Trump’s approval of new tariffs on solar panels to spur manufacturing of the renewable energy devices in the United States and discourage foreign imports.
“We are also investing in renewables,” Pouyanne explained. “Maybe you disagree, but in solar business … we’ve invested more than $2 billion in that company to develop solar in the U.S.”
Total owns and operates a large string of utility-scale solar power plants from California to the United Arab Emirates. It has a goal of making low-carbon energy resources 20 percent of its global business in the next 20 years.
Trump didn’t disagree, as Pouyanne suggested. Instead, Trump vowed to help his solar business, suggesting his tariff decision would be a windfall.
“And we’ll rebuild that business,” Trump told Pouyanne. “That whole thing is going to get rebuilt now, the solar panels. And you’ll see a big difference. But that’s very good.”
Trump then asked: “So from the U.S. standpoint, you’re very happy about it?”
Pouyanne replied, “Yes, I’m happy.”
