“Pound Sand”: Fossil Fuel Agenda in Disarray

Trump cabinet members begging oil execs to boost drilling in the face of war imposed Oil demand destruction.
I’ve been telling you – these guys boast constantly about being free marketers, but they’re just grifters.

UPDATE:

Financial Times May 1, 2026:

ExxonMobil and Chevron have defied calls from the White House to increase oil production, resisting pressure from an administration that is struggling to end the biggest energy crisis in decades.

Exxon’s chief financial officer Neil Hansen told the FT there had been “no change” to the company’s strategy in the Permian Basin, the dominant US oil and gas region, while Chevron’s finance chief Eimear Bonner said “the crisis has not prompted any change to any of our plans”.
The Iran war has slashed production across the Gulf and hit refining operations in the Middle East and beyond, triggering an energy shock that threatens to fuel inflation across the world.

Oil prices on Thursday rose to $126 a barrel, the highest level since the start of the war, while US petrol prices have soared to more than $4 a gallon, undermining President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to bring them below $2 and make life cheaper for Americans.

Bloomberg:

The Strait of Hormuz oil shock has yet to crash demand as the rich world borrows from its stocks and pays up to secure supply. Traders are now sounding the alarm that a harsh adjustment is coming.

The longer the vital oil channel doesn’t reopen, traders say, the more consumption is going to have to recalibrate lower to align with supply that’s dropped at least 10%. And for that to happen, people will have buy less, either through prices they ca

A billion barrels of supply loss is already all-but guaranteed — more than double the emergency inventories that governments released not long after the conflict began at the end of February. Buffers are being used up fast, helping to keep a lid on oil prices for now. But with the closure now in its ninth week, demand destruction that started in less obvious sectors like petrochemicals in Asia, is quietly spreading to everyday markets the world over.

—
Below, Goldman Sachs expert: Hormuz will never be the same.