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Secretary Wright on Fuel Prices, Refining Shortages and Venezuela Oil on The Charlie Kirk Show

October 7, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:14:12

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What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright appeared on The Charlie Kirk Show on October 7, 2026, in an interview rendered in Arabic auto-captions and paraphrased here from that transcript. Asked about elevated fuel prices heading toward the midterms, Wright said the Trump administration had increased U.S. oil and gas production and loosened refinery specifications so that U.S. refineries were producing more gasoline, jet fuel and diesel than ever, as he stated it. He attributed much of the price pressure to events abroad: Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s refinery complex, which he said had turned Russia from a major exporter of refined products into an importer of diesel and gasoline; China’s decision not to export refined products; and reduced exports from the Middle East.

Wright said Middle East crude exports had returned to roughly pre-war levels after Gulf export infrastructure was restructured, crediting the U.S. military, but he cautioned that tankers would take another three to four weeks to arrive and be refined. He said European diesel stock releases would help ease diesel prices, and he criticized California policy, saying two large refineries there had been forced to close in the previous twelve months and that gasoline in Democrat-run states cost about 50 cents a gallon more than in Republican-run states, and nearly $2 more in California, as he stated those figures. He said the administration was in ongoing dialogue about whether idled California refineries could be taken over and restarted, but that state regulations made profitable refining difficult.

On expanding U.S. capacity, Wright said the administration was helping existing refineries expand, restarting recently closed plants, and working on a new refinery project at Brownsville that he described as the first new refinery built in decades. He also cited a visit to an Ohio nuclear plant where capacity was being raised by 200 megawatts and to a steel plant making transformer steel. Asked about possible fuel-tax relief, he discussed bringing Congress back to vote on relief measures, according to the transcript.

Wright closed with a forecast and an update on Venezuela. He predicted gradual improvement in energy prices in the coming weeks and a large improvement over the following six to twenty-four months, returning to first-term Trump energy prices, as he put it. He said Venezuelan oil exports had risen more than 50 percent and that total Venezuelan production was expected to more than double in the first twenty-four months after the U.S. intervention, with much of the crude suited to U.S. refineries.

Why it matters

The interview is the Energy Secretary’s fullest pre-midterm explanation of the administration’s fuel-price case: that the binding constraint is global refining capacity, and that U.S. production, refinery restarts and Venezuelan supply are its chosen remedies.

Scoreboard watch

Wright forecast a large improvement in energy prices over the six to twenty-four months following October 2026 and said Venezuelan oil production would more than double within twenty-four months of the U.S. intervention, with exports already up more than 50 percent as he stated it. Those are dated, checkable claims recorded here without a verdict.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins The Charlie Kirk Show – October 7, 2026”, 2026-10-07 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-10-07). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.