President Donald Trump has promised since the campaign, to "drill, baby drill" and to tap into America's "liquid gold" oil reserves. The only problem is, it's not entirely up to him.
"It's certainly a balancing act" said Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, "The industry strongly supports his approach to North American energy dominance, for sure."
But, that dominance needs to include a profit.
"A price point that allows for the companies to actually make money, and return investment to their share holders" Stewart told KTRH, "It's a really delicate position right now."
Case in point, Chevron announced that it is slashing 20% of it's workforce as part of a cost-cutting plan. It's also worth noting that the Trump administration and the federal government controls 25% of U.S. oil and gas assets.
"It'll take a while, but it's got to start at some point and some time" noted Stewart, "We've got companies who now are taking a second look at some of those federal lands, saying we may be able to go back in now. They're putting pressure on us to increase production up another 3 million barrels, and the issue is where do we find those 3 million barrels."
With that said, Stewart adds that there is a "marked difference today vs. a month ago", and that Trump's Executive Orders on day one have been "game changers".
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