Transcript of Trump's comments about oil & gas and LNG

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Excerpt from transcript from Trump meeting with the Polish President.  26 minute video, many topics covered in the video; section about oil & gas and LNG is below.

Kindly note that politics is inextricably tied to energy and oil & gas.

Trying to ignore global politics within the context of global oil & gas and LNG (and nuclear energy and solar energy and wind energy) is a foolish Quixotic quest in absurdity.

If you read / listen to the entire meeting below, you may gain a better understanding of the oil & gas and LNG / energy security and geopolitical strategy of Trump. 

While you may or may not agree with Trump's energy views  (I certainly don't agree with much of Trump's views on this - I think he has bad advisors on Energy)  ignoring Trump's views is foolish at best, since Trump is actively and forcibly rearranging global oil & gas and LNG strategies, to the chagrin of many around the world.

Full transcript in the link.  I took the liberty of bolding all of the oil & gas and energy words in the transcript excerpt:

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Welcome Polish President Andrzej Duda and Madame Agata Kornhauser-Duda to White House

 

YouTube video: President Trump Participates in a 2:2 Bilateral Meeting with the President of Poland

 

Note that the U.S. and Poland have agreed to $8 Billion sales of Liquefied Natural Gas.

Excerpt from transcript about energy:

...

Q Can you — a question — an open question: Can you comment about the energy cooperation? I understand that there is (inaudible).

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, energy is a tremendous asset that we have. Since I’m President, we became the largest energy producer in the world. And we now are shipping a lot of energy offshore and to different countries. Vietnam just made a tremendous purchase of coal from West Virginia. We’re a tremendous energy producer now in all forms of energy. And it’s actually, within a year — especially if I get certain pipelines built — it won’t even be close. We’ll be double what other countries are.

It used to be Saudi Arabia and Russia; now it’s United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. So we’ve made tremendous strides.

Poland is buying a lot of LNG. It’s going to buy billions and billions of dollars’ worth of LNG from us, and we appreciate that.

Q Is it the result of a common initiative, Mr. President?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right.

Q Mr. President, will you use sanctions to block Nord Stream II — the pipeline from Germany to Russia? From Russia to —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re looking at it. Look, people have a right to do what they want to do. I think it’s a — you know, something that I’ve been looking at and I’m thinking about. And I’m the one that brought up the pipeline problem where you have Russia giving a tremendous percentage of energy. You know this gas is going into Germany. I say, “How can you do that?” So, we’re protecting Germany from Russia. And Russia is getting billions and billions of dollars of money from Germany. I’m the one that brought up the problem.

With that being said, I hope they get along. But Russia is paying 1 percent, as I said. They’re not paying 2 percent. They should be paying much more — Germany. That Germany is paying 1 percent; they should be paying 2 percent. They should really be paying more than that. But we’ll see how that works out.

No, I think this: We have something much better. We have tremendous LNG — liquefied natural gas. And a lot of the European countries are wanting it, including yourselves. I mean, tremendous amounts are being sold to different places all over the world, but also to Europe. And I think that’s really the way, if they want to spend a tremendous amount of money.

I do think this: And I would say, hopefully, nothing will happen. Nothing negative. Hopefully, we’re going to have a great relationship with Russia, great relationship with China and with Germany, and everybody else. But I do think that Germany is putting themselves at a tremendous disadvantage when 50, 60, or 70 percent of their energy is being supplied by Russia. I don’t know how you can do it.

Q (Inaudible) you have the power to block the pipeline. You can just put sanctions.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, Germany — no, no, let me explain it differently. Germany has the power to block it. You know how they block it? By not buying it. I mean, Germany made a decision to buy a tremendous percentage of their energy from Russia. Germany — whether they should be doing that or not, they’re the ones that have the power to block it.

They shouldn’t buy it. Or, if they want to, they can. But that’s really a decision of Germany. I’m not saying that I would be in favor. I think the German people aren’t very happy about it. Because it really makes Germany a hostage of Russia if things ever happened that were bad. Hopefully that will never be — happen.

Okay. Go ahead.

Q Your comments to — your reaction to new comments by Iran. Rouhani is saying Iran will not start a war but will defend itself if attacked.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I would think they would.

Q Your response? What do you think of that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure. I would think they would. I hope they defend themselves.

Q What do you think of that? Does that increase the chances of coming to the table?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I would think they would defend themselves. Iran is not the same country. When I became President, Iran was a terror all over the world. They had just made this horrible deal for the United States — the Iran Nuclear Deal. And I became President and I terminated the deal. And Iran now is in chaos. It’s got a lot of problems. I don’t want them to be that way. But we’re stopping their oil. We’re stopping a lot of different things. We just stopped, two weeks ago, the steel, metals — all metals, all forms of metals.

And, as you know, they have tremendous inflation. They have a lot of problems. I don’t want them to have problems. The problem could be solved, but you know what they have to do. And they didn’t do it properly. And the deal that President Obama made was a horrible deal. It was a horrible deal — $150 billion; $1.8 billion in cash. It was a horrible deal, and I terminated the deal very nicely. I terminated the deal.

Since I terminated that deal, Iran is not the same country. But I — with all of it being said, hopefully we’ll able to get along with Iran. If we can, that’s great. And if we can’t, that’s great too.

Q Can I ask a question on Venezuela, please?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Venezuela is, obviously, in flux. It’s doing unbelievably badly. This was, Mr. President, one of the richest countries. Had tremendous oil, tremendous everything. It just shows you, when you have a bad system, it became a socialistic system, or worse. And now people don’t have food. They don’t have water. They don’t have anything. It’s a very sad thing. We’re watching Venezuela very closely.

...

 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Transcript from the followup joint press conference.  Parts relating to oil & gas and LNG are excerpted below.  Again, full video and transcript in the link:

President Trump and President Andrzej Duda Hold Joint Press Conference (Video and Transcript)

 

YouTube video: President Trump Participates in a Joint Press Conference with the President of Poland

 

Excerpt from transcript relating to oil & gas and LNG:

... PRESIDENT TRUMP: Both of our nations understand that immigration security is national security. In our meeting, President Duda and I discussed the vital issue of energy. Reliance on a single foreign supplier of energy leaves nations totally vulnerable to coercion and extortion.

For this reason, we support Poland’s construction of the Baltic pipeline, which will help European countries diversify their energy sources. It’s desperately needed, and that’s the way to go.

During the past year, Poland has also signed approximately 25 billion dollars’ worth of new contracts with U.S. firms to buy more than 6 billion cubic meters of U.S. liquefied natural gas. Today, our nations just signed another contract for an additional 2 billion cubic meters worth approximately $8 billion.

So between the planes and the liquefied natural gas, and many other things that Poland is doing — which is doing very well because Poland is doing very, very well — we appreciate it. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

Our countries also signed an agreement to expand U.S.-Polish civil nuclear cooperation, which will likewise advance Poland’s energy and security, and deepen our bilateral commercial ties.

Economic relations between the U.S. and Poland are thriving. We’re committed to further expanding commerce based on fairness and reciprocity — perhaps my favorite word.

Across many critical areas — from defense and diplomacy, to energy and economics — the alliance between the United States and Poland is reaching extraordinary new heights in 2019. Our longstanding partnership demonstrates the enormous possibilities for the world when two strong and independent nations unite in common purpose and in common cause.

...

PRESIDENT DUDA: (As interpreted.)  ... Thank you, Mr. President, also for excellent energy cooperation that we have in terms of LNG supplies. We talked about this in 2017, in Warsaw, during our meeting, that gas from the United States should be delivered to Poland. And it is delivered. And we are signing more contracts. And gas tankers from the United States are coming to the Port of Świnoujście today. And the gas from the United States has become a fact in Poland and in our part of Europe.

Thank you, Mr. President, that there are going to be more supplies. I’m very happy about that, because to us, it means diversification of sources of supplies. It also means the development of gas security. To us, it also means good business, just as I do really believe is a good business for the United States of America. But thank you also for the agreement cooperation in terms of nuclear energy used for civil purposes.

I hope that, together, we will be able to implement this program with the benefit for environment protection with the benefit for (inaudible) protection across the globe, and also for the development of the security of my homeland.

...

Q Earlier in the Oval Office, before you did your meeting with President Duda, you were quite critical of Germany, as you talked about possibly moving troops from Germany to Poland. Do you think that doing a move like that will put pressure on Germany to meet their defense spending requirements?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I don’t think so. I just will tell you very strongly that I think Germany is making a tremendous mistake by relying so heavily on the pipeline. And I think it’s a tremendous mistake for Germany. But again, Germany is running their affairs. And they’ll do just fine.

But I was critical. I had been critical of it. It’s a tremendous amount of their energy will be supplied by that pipeline.

At the same time, having nothing to do with Germany, Poland said that we would like to build a facility, a great facility, and we’d like to have you come to that facility. So we’re going to be there with a limited force, but we’ll be there. And we appreciate Poland doing what they’re doing. It’s a great location. It’s a tremendous — it’s a tremendous plant, tremendous facility. And it’s our honor to be there.

...

 

[Justin Hicks + 162]

Can we start out by breaking his Twitter finger? Then we can work on the YouTube stuff. I voted for the man as a lesser of two evils, but I'm penciling in Alfred E Newman next time...