By John Haughey

HOUSTON—President Donald Trump’s policies boosting American energy production are proving prescient with ships and pipelines carrying oil, liquified natural gas, and petroleum derivatives under threat worldwide, most urgently in the Strait of Hormuz, United States Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said.

“This strategy was built for this moment,” he told S&P Global Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin on March 25 during the third day of the 44th annual CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in the Americas Hilton-Houston.

Burgum and Yergin’s discussion included insights on the unfolding global energy crisis fostered by the Iran war, Venezuela’s emerging potential, Alaska oil and gas development, critical mineral partnerships, and the need for permit reform.

Beginning with “day one” executive actions in January 2025, such as a “National Energy Emergency Declaration,” a call for bolstering oil and natural gas production in an “Unleashing American Energy” order, and opening Alaska’s “extraordinary resource potential” to development, Burgum said the Trump administration’s goal has been to end reliance on “highly insecure supply chains” and develop the nation’s resources for domestic industry and global export.

Trump’s “energy dominance strategy is all about energy abundance; it’s about the energy for affordability at home, to power our economy, to win the arms race,”  Burgum said. “But it’s also about the ability to sell to our friends and allies so that they don’t have to buy from adversaries that are funding wars or funding terrorism against us.”

With ships idling in the Persian Gulf and stacking in the Arabian Sea unwilling to transit the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian chokehold on maritime commerce is devastating economies by preventing the daily movement of 20 percent of the world’s crude oil and liquified natural gas from the Persian Gulf.

“The strategy has never been more spot on,” said Burgum, who along with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Director Lee Zeldin are prominent Trump administration officials making appearances and delivering remarks at the annual five-day energy conference attended by more than 10,000 industry experts, financial analysts, and innovators from nearly 90 nations.

Since he’s been in Houston all week, Burgum said that like everyone else, he’s “hearing the reports, what’s publicly reported, that there is a dialogue going on” with Iranian officials and is “encouraged about that” but noted the president’s energy policies have given his administration options in eliminating Iran’s capacity to menace the planet with a nuclear weapon.

“He doesn’t have to kick the can down the road on a terror regime that’s been terrorizing the world for 47 years,” he said, noting one emerging benefit from Operation Epic Fury is “we have the entire Middle East and Israel all aligned in one position right now. So alliances—and opportunities—have never been stronger.”

Resources in Venezuela

Trump diffused a growing Iranian threat in the Western Hemisphere by greenlighting the Jan. 3, 2026 raid that captured Venezuela strongman Nicolás Maduro, Burgum said.

“Venezuela was a hotbed of Iranian-funded terror groups, including Hamas,” he said. ”If there was an Iranian ballistic missile placed in Venezuela, it could not just reach Houston, it could reach Washington, D.C., and so again, the actions of the United States are making the world safer.”

Burgum and Wright led a delegation of U.S. oil, gas, and mining executives to Caracas in early March where he met with interim President Darcy Rodriguez for more than 10 hours and returned enthused about the “quite amazing opportunity not just for capital investors, but for human talent, for the resources there.”

Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, an estimated 300 billion untapped barrels, about 17 percent of global capacity, the world’s seventh-largest natural gas reserves, and viable deposits of at least 30 critical minerals the United States Geological Survey identifies as vital to the nation’s economy.

Burgum said in January that after decades of socialist mismanagement, nationalizations of industry, and corruption, Venezuela will need significant investment in its energy extraction sector.

Burgum said his March trip to Venezuela proved to be good as gold—$100 million worth, to be exact.

“There hadn’t been a shipment of precious metals between Venezuela and America in over 20 years,” he said. “At the end of the two days, we were able to bring home $100 million of gold—physically, the gold” and deliver it to a smelter.

Burgum said Venezuelans were friendly and eager for development, noting “we felt very safe” walking around Caracas.