U.S. energy secretary’s former company crushed by oil sell-off after Trump tariff escalation
Chris Wright, chief executive officer of Liberty Energy Inc. and US energy secretary nominee for US President-elect Donald Trump, arrives for a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Liberty Energy shares lost around nearly a third of their value in just two days, as the oilfield services company founded by President Donald Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright comes under heavy selling pressure.
The stock has shed 30% since Wednesday’s close and was last trading 13.8% lower as of 11:00 a.m. ET. The sharp decline marks one of the steepest drops among U.S. energy services stocks in recent months.
It comes as the price of benchmark U.S. crude fell to near $60 dollars a barrel on Friday — the lowest level since 2021 and a new 52-week low.
“The U.S. shale patch, which have been very big supporters and have a close relationship with Trump, are not going to be happy with this,” Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Friday.
Kavonic also said that WTI prices falling below $60 a barrel could start to threaten supply growth.
“If you start to see further downward pressure here… that’s going to put pressure on the folks down in Texas and Louisiana and elsewhere to pull off the rigs and not drill as much,” he said.
Wright, the U.S. energy secretary, founded Liberty Energy but stepped away from the company after entering public office. While he is no longer involved in day-to-day operations, Liberty remains closely associated with the shale boom that Wright helped to pioneer during his career as a leading energy executive.
Speaking to CNBC in March, Wright said that Americans could look forward to lower oil prices under a Trump presidency, which promised to unleash American energy drilling.
“More supply is going to come, and that’s pushed down prices of oil, gasoline, home heating fuels, everything across the board, that’s a win to the American people,” Wright said.
Trade War Rout
Global energy stocks have been in the crosshairs of Trump’s chaos-inducing tariff rollout, as fears rise of an all-out trade war that could throttle global growth and energy demand.
A decision by OPEC+ to accelerate oil production hikes on Thursday put further downward pressure on prices — presenting a particularly unwanted situation for U.S. shale producers, who face some of the highest production costs in the world. Historically, shale companies have faced financial wipeouts in periods of low oil prices.
Shares in leading U.S. oil producers including ConocoPhillips fell more than 10% on Thursday, while Exxon, Chevron and Occidental closed down more than 6%.
Liberty Energy’s stock price jumped in November on the news of Wright’s appointment as energy secretary, closing 5% higher on the day of the announcement. Its market capitalization at the time was $2.7 billion. It’s market capitalization now stands at $2.1 billion, according to LSEG data.
The Denver-based company’s CEO, Ron Gusek, is due to release the company’s first-quarter financial results on April 16.
China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.
The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.
The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.
China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.
To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.
To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.
The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.
As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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Tesla is starting to experience some consequences for misleading Full Self Driving customers – at least that’s the finding of one arbitration ruling that has Tesla refunding one customer $10,000 plus legal fees for failing to deliver on their promises. Find out more on today’s legally challenging episode of Quick Charge!
An arbitration “court” found that Tesla misled customers with its Full Self Driving product, and has now been forced to refund at least one person’s $10,000 payment (plus legal fees) for the not-quite autonomous driving software. France, too, is piling on claims of deceptive business practices – but there’s some good news for FSD fans! If you’re still willing to pay for it, Tesla will thrown in 0% financing on a brand new Cybertruck.
Check out the relevant links, below, to learn more.
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