Big Oil boomed under Biden. So why does it hate him?

Financial Times

Among west Texas oilmen, the lesser prairie-chicken is a subject that quickly raises hackles. 

The unusual-looking animal famed for its elaborate mating dance roams the scrubland of the vast Permian Basin — the epicentre of US oil production — and was listed as endangered last year. Its new status now restricts where, when and how oil can be drilled.

For the industry, the rights granted to the bird are emblematic of the regulatory onslaught it claims to have suffered at the hands of President Joe Biden, who executives believe will bring about the ruin of their sector.

“It’s death by 1,000 cuts,” says Steve Pruett, chief executive of Elevation Resources, sitting in his office in Midland, Texas. “It’s the worst presidency with regard to energy policy I’ve ever seen — and I’ve been involved in energy for 40 years, my entire career.”

After the regulatory bonfire of Donald Trump’s four years in office, Biden made tackling climate change a central priority for his administration and vowed to crack down on America’s oil and gas industry. He has brought in environmental rules that range from endangered species protections and a clampdown on methane leaks to restrictions on offshore leasing and the suspension of new licences for the multibillion-dollar terminals needed to liquefy American gas and ship it abroad.

To many Democratic voters, such restrictions are long overdue. But in Midland, the west Texas frontier town where George W Bush spent his childhood, they have made Biden an unpopular man. The city sits at the heart of the Permian, which at 6.1mn barrels a day pumps more than Opec powerhouses such as Kuwait, Iraq or the UAE — and has made the US the biggest oil producer in history.

With six months to go until the presidential election in November, energy policy has emerged as a key battleground between Biden and Trump. The former president is attempting to harness the discontent by telling voters in fossil fuel states that, if re-elected, he would adopt a policy of “drill, baby, drill”.

Yet the rhetoric of the two candidates belies an inconvenient truth for both: America’s oil and gas industry has flourished under Biden. At more than 13mn b/d, production is at record levels, exports of American hydrocarbons have surged and the scale of annual profits has been

The full article is available here. This article was published at FT Markets.