On Tuesday, Politico reported that oil industry leaders are skeptical that President Donald Trump's suggestions for relieving the downward economic pressure on their business will be productive or useful.
"The administration has so far jettisoned plans to buy oil for the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, nixed an idea to eliminate royalty payments for energy produced on federal lands and dropped a discussion of paying oil companies not to produce oil," reported Ben Lefebvre and Zack Coleman. "The latest idea floated last week calls for the Treasury Department to create a fund to lend money to struggling oil producers — and take partial ownership stakes in the companies while requiring them to reduce their output."
The report continued: "'This is whack-a-mole stuff,' said one oil industry official involved in the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the administration’s efforts. 'There is a huge interest to 'do something' to help. But it all sounds good until step two.'"
The oil industry has been particularly decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, as all over the country people have quarantined themselves and stopped driving. Last week, for the first time ever, U.S. crude futures sunk into negative territory.
