Oil executives warn of increased costs due to Trump's tariffs

Two oil executives warned this week about the impact of tariffs on the cost of energy production and investment decisions.

TotalEnergies' CEO Patrick Pouyanne said at the Energy Intelligence Forum held in London on February 2 that tariffs on metals were driving up costs for LNG projects.

Trump signed a proclamation in June that increased tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to 50%.

Lorenzo Simonelli told the same conference that Monday that tariffs will add between $100 and $200 million in costs to the company this year. However, the cost increase is likely to be closer to the lower range of the estimate.

He said, "It's a pressure point that is incremental but we need to deal with it."

Darren Woods is the chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, a major U.S. oil company. He has downplayed any impact that a single administration may have on the group's investments over the long term, stating that the group was not affected by merely one election cycle.

He cited instead the environmental regulations in Europe as a factor that is driving away investment.

Woods said at the conference that "the challenge in Europe is they try to micromanage the industry and instruct them on how to achieve decarbonisation", Woods said on Monday. "Frankly they don't know what they are doing." Reporting by Stephanie Kelly, London Editing by Tomasz Janowowski

(source: Reuters)