Nov 11, 2016 3 min read

The head of the oil and gas industry’s largest trade organization said Thursday the presidency of Donald Trump could help it build out its infrastructure and work under fewer regulations while continuing to lower emissions.

During a telephone news conference to discuss his organization’s post-election outlook on energy with reporters, Jack Gerard, president and chief executive officer for the American Petroleum Institute, said the industry looks forward to working with Trump to create jobs, enhance energy security and continue to lower carbon emissions.

Gerard opened the discussion by noting an election-night survey conducted by API that found 80 percent of voters surveyed agreed U.S. oil and gas production was producing job creation, economic growth and energy security, adding 80 percent of those surveyed said they supported increased oil and gas production domestically, including 71 percent of Democrats, 94 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of independents.

“Seventy-seven percent of voters say they support a national energy policy that ensures a secure supply of abundant, affordable and available energy for the American people in an environmentally responsible manner,” he said.

The poll was conducted Tuesday by telephone by Harris Poll on behalf of API among 890 actual voters across the United States, with a sampling error of +/- 3 percent.

According to Gerard, when Trump takes office in January, API hopes he could take action in either reducing or eliminating some 145 pending rules on oil and gas production.

During a question-and-answer period one reporter asked Gerard to specify which of the regulations the industry would like to see changed first. “I think we need to look at the regulations holistically,” he said. Gerard later said the industry would like to eliminate rules it believes represent “redundancy, overreach and added cost for no benefit to consumers.”

When asked about federal rules requiring additional methane mitigation for oil and gas operations, he said, “Methane emissions have been going down in the U.S. at the same time as production is going up significantly,” he said, adding that the industry is taking steps to capture more methane because losing natural gas negatively impact business.

API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. The institute’s 625 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, as well as service and supply firms.

It was unclear how much U.S. production of oil could increase next year, given another announcement on Thursday.

The International Energy Agency said the current world oil market surplus could run into a third year next year without an output cut from OPEC.

In its monthly oil market report, IEA said global supply rose by 800,000 barrels per day in October to 97.8 million barrels per day. The increase was led by record OPEC output as well as rising production from non-OPEC members such as Russia, Brazil, Canada and Kazakhstan.

OPEC meets at the end of this month to discuss a proposed cut in production to a range of 32.5 to 33 million bpd, but IEA noted that disagreement among members over exemptions and production levels has raised doubt over the organization’s ability to produce a meaningful cutback.