(Adds comments from State Dept spokesperson)
By Ron Bousso and Gary McWilliams
HOUSTON, March 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary Of State MikePompeo will meet with top oil executives before he addresses aconference on Tuesday, in an effort to get them to help theadministration's effort to boost crude exports to Asia and tosupport its policy of isolating Iran, according to three peopleat two companies briefed on the agenda.
The outreach represents a significant new effort to swayindustry executives to the Trump Administration’s “energydominance” agenda that seeks to advance diplomatic and policyobjectives through rapidly expanding U.S. oil and gas exports.The effort has won success in convincing nations includingChina, Poland, Japan and South Korea to purchases more U.S. oiland natural gas.
Pompeo plans on discussing how to boost U.S. energydominance worldwide, but particularly in Asia, and furtherisolate the Islamic Republic of Iran, which the United Statesre-imposed sanctions on last year, through strengthening tieswith other Middle East nations, the people said. The locationand time of the meeting was unclear.
Following the meeting in Houston, Pompeo is set to speak atIHS Markit's CERAWeek conference, the oil and gas industry’slargest annual gathering in the United States. He was scheduledto meet State Department employees in the late morning,according to an official schedule.
Executives from major companies including Chevron Corp, Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell PLC,ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum Corphave been invited to the closed door meeting. Representativesfrom a number of those companies are scheduled to speak earlierin the day at CERAWeek.
Occidental declined to comment. Chevron had no comment. ATotal representative could not immediately be reached forcomment. The other companies did not immediately respond torequests for comment.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson did not immediatelycomment on Pompeo's schedule but did say that Frank Fannon, thedepartment's top energy diplomat, was meeting with energycompanies on Tuesday in Houston to talk about the Asia policy.
According to two of the sources, Pompeo was expected in theclosed door meeting to discuss the Trump administration's plansfor the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), which would forman alliance of Sunni Muslim countries in the Gulf, includingSaudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman,Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan, as the White House seeks to restrainIran.
That group has become mired in a dispute between Qatar andSaudi Arabia, both important U.S. allies in the region. The leadU.S. negotiator for the alliance, Anthony Zinni, left theposition earlier this year, putting a plan to promote Arabsecurity and battle extremism in jeopardy.
But Tuesday's sit-down was also expected to includediscussions on the United States’ policy in Asia. Dubbed 'AsiaEdge' by the administration, it aims to grow Asian energysecurity by further expanding U.S. oil and gas exports to theregion, according to the sources.
“The success of Asia Edge is highly dependent on whatprivate industry does and then the work the government can do tosupport that,” the spokesperson at the State Department’s energybureau said.
“The main message is how we can work best with thecompanies. Consequently engaging with the CEOs, especially onAsia Edge, is key because they're playing a much bigger rolethan we would have seen in other types of similar issues."
The United States produces more than 12 million barrels perday (bpd) of crude, making it the world's largest producer, andit is the world's biggest exporter of refined products likediesel fuel and gasoline.
It has expanded sales of fuels, crude oil and liquefiednatural gas (LNG) to Asian customers, including China in a bidto dominate worldwide energy trade after a four-decade ban oncrude exports was ended by President Obama in 2016. The UnitedStates now exports more than 3 million bpd of crude.
The Trump White House has also imposed harsh sanctions onIran and Venezuela, both members of the Organization of thePetroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), removing more than 2million bpd of oil from daily global supply. In addition, OPECand allied producers including Russia have been limiting theirown output in an effort to buoy prices, which has helpedindependent U.S. producers.(Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston and TimothyGardner and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by DavidGaffen; Editing by David Gregorio)
