HIGHLY OPTIMISTIC: Bessent bets BIG on rapid COLLAPSE in oil prices

Hinzugefügt: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01]President Trump and yourself, obviously, have have been balancing this you know, getting rid of a potential nuclear terrorist with the idea that oil prices and gas prices have to go down before the midterms.

[00:00:11]>> Well, well, they will. You know, but um oil prices crude, West Texas is down about 20, 25%.

[00:00:20]It's down about 12% this month. Uh gasoline prices are down, I think, about 5% now, and you know, they will go back down.

[00:00:29]We understand that they that there is a disturbance here, that it's uncomfortable for people, but we're going to get to the other side of that.

[00:00:38]And I think on the other side, oil market is going to be very well supplied. The UAE has come out of OPEC.

[00:00:46]I think we maybe got some permanent demand destruction out in Asia. So, I am very confident that the energy prices are going to come down very quickly.

[00:00:57]>> Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Maria yesterday that gas prices are coming down and will drop further before the midterms. Oil prices this morning are still elevated overnight the US conducting more defensive strikes on Iran as President Trump has yet to announce his final determination on the proposed peace agreement. The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, also says that the US could resume battering Iran if necessary with plenty of arms to unleash an overwhelming arsenal. Energy analysts are now sounding the alarm on oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, saying that they may not reach pre-conflict levels anytime soon.

[00:01:32]Joining me now, former US Energy Secretary under President Trump, Dan Brouillette. Sir, it's great to have you on this morning. What is your perspective on what you're seeing in the energy markets right now?

[00:01:42]>> It's good to see you, Sheryl. Thanks for having me. Look, I think Secretary Bessent is correct. The long The long-term, but you look at the futures curve, it does show oil pricing going down, and that means the market is expecting some closure, or some ceasefire to be extended, or some resolution to this conflict overall. So, that the optimism is shown in the long-term pricing. But, as Mike Wirth, the CEO of Chevron, pointed out just recently, the short-term looks quite different.

[00:02:08]Storages are being drawn down rather quickly. Refineries are pulling that crude into the market, refining it, and putting it in in the form of diesel and gasoline.

[00:02:17]Those storage prices are those storage levels when they go down create scarcity in the marketplace. And that's going to put upward pressure on prices in the near term. So, the secretary's correct, long-term prices will come down once the overall crude markets stabilize, ships start to move through the Strait of Hormuz. But, in the near term, we we may see some price increases.

[00:02:38]>> Yeah, well, you know, you were we were talking about, you know, the supply issue.

[00:02:42]How concerned are you about, whether it's, you know, distillates, whether it's gasoline stocks, you know, jet fuel, diesel, uh oil in general. I mean, how concerned are you about this supply warning that you mentioned? Because, again, and, you know, the the energy storage industry um is installing uh a a uh a new a record amount of capacity in the first quarter. This is 174.9 um gigawatt hours. That's the Solar Energy Industries Association, more than 610 gigawatt hours expected by 2030. The reason I kind of put those two things together is because if you're concerned about um about the the supplies going down in this country, which affects the gas pump, but that also affects the electricity story, are you concerned about this second component of it, the latter?

[00:03:31]>> Well, uh somewhat. I mean, I think on the crude side, we're talking about on the side, if we're talking molecules, then we're running roughly 2 to 3% below our average, our national average, on the amount of crude and the amount of distillates that we're storing here in the US. So, we need to bump that up slightly. But, again, until we can get production up, until we can get permitting fixed in the United States, those numbers may stay a little bit low.

[00:03:54]On the electricity side, however, you know, I think the industry is moving very quickly to develop new technologies around batteries and other types of storage. And if you want to look for a story here, Cheryl, look at Texas. It is the center point of what's happening in that particular industry. Our ability to store electricity has changed dramatically in the last 5 years. I expect it'll change again. And as the president has pointed out, when you say all of the above, it truly does mean all of the above if you're talking about energy supply. It takes all forms of energy to meet the demand that's coming on.

[00:04:24]>> Especially because of the data centers, and that is what we've talked about. You know, I was looking at kind of the breakdown of even, you know, solar and wind power. And at this point, it's 18% of of US electricity generation. Uh this was 2025. That is wind and solar. We need all forms of energy, nuclear as well, to get these data centers uh powered up and and and going and constructed. To be clear here, it's going to be 19 to 21% just for those two renewables uh in 2027. Real quick before you go, the EU is considering a temporary freeze to its price cap on Russian oil due to the war in the Middle East. Current price threshold is $44.10 per barrel, but that's due for review later in the summer. What do you think that the Europeans may do or what should they do in your opinion here?

[00:05:10]>> Well, I think they really need to look at the cap. I mean, it is a formula that is set uh by agreement. So, currently, it's roughly $44, but it's set on the price of oil globally. So, unfortunately, because of the conflict in Iran, we've seen oil prices rise, which means that formula is going to produce a rise in the price or the cap uh that that affects Russian oil, meaning they're going to make more money. So, it's going to move from 40, $44, whatever it is today, to perhaps as high as 60. So, they're going to make more money, which is money that I think would be spent on the war in Ukraine.

[00:05:40]So, I'm I'm hopeful. I'm I'm going to wait and see what the EU and what the uh Secretary Bessette and others agree to, but I think a cap is probably in order here.

[00:05:48]>> All right. Well, that your perspective [music] is key here. We're going to be watching that. Dan Brouillette, thank you so much for being here. So much to talk about in this space right now. Glad to have you. Thank you.

[00:05:57]>> Thank you, Sharon.

[00:05:58]>> All right. We'll be right back, everybody.

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