Following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in November, oil and gas executives reported feeling slightly more optimistic about the outlook for their companies and a little less uncertain about what the future holds, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said Thursday.
The bank’s latest energy survey found that 57 percent of executives said their firms plan to boost capital spending in 2025 compared with last year.
But the numbers were less exuberant among large producers — as half of those executives said their companies’ spending is expected to drop this year while 36 percent said it could climb slightly. That’s important because large U.S. producers, which each churn out 10,000 barrels or more a day, account for about 80 percent of the country’s oil and gas production.
The survey results come as Trump has pledged to slash EPA regulations tied to the industry, open up more federal lands for oil and gas production and get producers to “drill, baby, drill.” Kunal Patel, a senior business economist with the Dallas Fed, told reporters Thursday that presidential policies often aren’t the main factor in how optimistic oil and gas executives appear.
