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Wright on Bloomberg: Oil Executives' Permitting Asks, a $20 Billion SPR Refill Request and the Ukraine Minerals Deal

March 20, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:08:24

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What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Bloomberg’s Balance of Power on March 20, 2025, from the White House North Lawn, according to the Department of Energy’s recording. Wright described the previous day’s White House meeting with oil and gas executives, saying the administration was in listening mode as executives raised a litany of delays and uncertainty about whether they could get permits. He said the administration’s message was that President Trump was elected to increase American energy production, and that more supply means lower costs, more jobs and more geopolitical power. Tariffs, he said, were not discussed at the meeting; asked about producer anxiety, he said the President’s goal is reciprocal trade and that negotiations with multiple countries are still being created, so clarity will come but is not there yet, as he characterized the talks.

On the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Wright confirmed the administration will go to Congress for money to refill it — Bloomberg reported the ask as up to $20 billion — calling the reserve strategic insurance for very bad world events. He said refilling takes much longer than the 2022 drawdown he described as done for political reasons, that it is a multi-year process, and that if approval existed the department would happily be buying crude in the market today rather than trying to guess prices, pausing only for spikes or dislocations, as he described the purchasing approach.

Wright also reacted to President Trump’s statement that a Ukraine rare-earths agreement would be signed very shortly, saying a deal could be done quickly and calling it a brilliant idea. He argued that underground materials only become resources when technology, capital and human activity bring them out of the ground, and that a U.S. partnership to develop Ukraine’s long-unused materials is upside for both countries, as he made the case.

Why it matters

The interview captures the administration’s March 2025 energy agenda mid-assembly: permitting relief for producers, a multi-billion-dollar reserve refill awaiting Congress, and a Ukraine minerals partnership that within weeks became the Reconstruction Investment Fund announced May 1.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the administration’s request to Congress for SPR refill funding, reported by Bloomberg as up to $20 billion and confirmed by Wright on March 20, 2025, is a dated, checkable commitment flagged for the scoreboard editors, with no verdict entered here.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright joins Bloomberg’s Balance of Power - March 20th, 2025”, 2025-03-20 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-03-20). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.