Rick Perry warns ExIm-backed gas project threatens US energy and Trump’s agenda

First on Fox: The American export-important bank is expected to vote Thursday on a liquefied natural gas export project of nearly $ 5 billion in Africa which vehemently opposes the leaders of the US oil and gas industry, including the former energy secretary of President Donald Trump.

Rick Perry, who was an American energy secretary during Trump’s first term, said on the eve of the vote he considers the potential authorization of the Bank of the African Project as a direct contradiction with the Trump energy agenda – and who could endanger Trump’s long -standing objectives of the domination of American energy in his second mandate in the White Chamber.

“I do not know what the strategy is” with the project, said Perry to Fox News Digital in an interview. “I just think that this is contrary to the agenda of the president” America First “”, which is strongly focused on the triggering of oil and gas production, including LNG exports.

The concerns of the industry reached a fever ground this week before a planned vote of the Board of Directors of Exim Thursday morning on the advisability of taking out the project of approximately $ 4.7 billion on liquefied natural gas (LNG) that France totals continue in Mozambique, off the east coast of Africa.

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Energy officials have warned that the project, if authorized, would constitute a direct threat to LNG projects and American export terminals, the “molecule for the molecule” in competition with the United States and the massive supply contracts which he hopes ink with buyers in Japan and Asia, whose consumers are based strongly on imported energy supplies.

The demand of these countries increases rapidly, and the United States hoped to be the answer to this problem with its LNG project in Alaska, which Trump praised directly at his first address to a joint session of the Congress at the beginning of the month.

The Alaska project, which cools pipe gases in a liquid that can be transported abroad, is essential to quickly provide Asian markets, and the Trump administration hopes to use demand to overcome existing obstacles – including the decline of environmental activists and billions of additional funding necessary to put it online.

Thus, the vote of the export-import bank to finance the project of a foreign competitor has many American energy officials to scratch their heads.

“US government funding for major foreign projects would be a direct competitive threat to the extension of American exports,” said a senior industry official in Fox News Digital in an interview.

This includes American projects like Alaska LNG, an export that may be completely blocked by Mozambique, noted officials. They would compete exactly for the same market – and Mozambique, unlike Alaska, is prey to conflicts and civil disorders.

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The SOHSHU MARU natural gas (LNG) is approached the thermal power plant of Jera Co. in Futtsu, Prefecture, Japan. (Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Trump used a large part of his time on the Campaign campaign in 2024, promising to unleash the production of American oil and gas and natural gas exports, including LNG expeditions, which were temporarily interrupted under the Biden administration in what Trump described at the time as a “disastrous” policy.

Above all, supply contracts are often signed for longer conditions (10 to 20 years) than other fossil fuel contracts – which means that the United States could cause long -term risks.

A former senior administration official noted that the LNG project in Alaska would be almost impossible to take off if the Totalengices project was funded.

“It’s pretty impactful,” added the former official. “If we have Mozambique online, we sap our capacity, or the very capacity of Canadians, to develop their export operations on the west coast.” The former senior official, as well as the manager of the industry, spoke of context due to the significant nature of the project and the current voting in progress.

“Each molecule that comes out of Mozambique is directly in competition with American molecules,” said the industry manager.

“The reason why this is really important is that American energy projects are built not only for the Gulf of America, but also for states across the country, where subcontractors and entrepreneurs support the construction of these billions and billions of dollars of projects and gas supply.” This includes places like Appalachian Pennsylvania, Ohio and more.

The Exim Board of Directors could still vote so as not to authorize the funds sought by Totalengies for the Mozambique project. They could also postpone the vote more.

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President Donald Trump praised the LNG project in Alaska in his speech to a joint session from Congress to the Chamber of the Chamber of the American Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 4, 2025. (Win McNamee / Pool / AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

So why would the bank vote to undermine Trump’s policies? Industry officials and former administration officials noted that the current investment policies of Exim currently did not hierarchize the support for American demand infrastructure – an effort that triggered reform efforts in Trump’s first mandate.

“If we want to sell American products in these countries, then have this conversation. But when we have this extraordinary resource, it is a national security problem as well as an economic problem,” said Perry.

“This installation we are talking about is in direct competition with Alaska in the gas from the northern slope of Alaska to the south, by splitting it and exporting it to the same markets,” he added.

Perry, who previously was Governor of Texas and graduated from Texas A&M, joked about approval by the example of funding by the Exim Bank for the Mozambique LNG project would be similar to “the aggies that give money to the University of Texas [at Austin]”To support their football program, refer to the rivalry of decades between the two schools in Texas.

“If you test one of the main principles of Donald Trump’s campaign, it was first America, and it is not America first,” said Perry. “And just at first glance, I don’t think it should go ahead, and I don’t think it’s going ahead.”

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The White House did not immediately respond to the request for comments from Fox News Digital on the vote, or to the knowledge of Trump on the Decision Exim.

“I think that as soon as the president is wind of this, he will put an end to it,” said Perry.