Harris understands fracking ban raises energy costs, industry execs say

By Curtis Williams

HOUSTON (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris understands that natural gas prices will rise if fracking is banned, industry executives said on Tuesday, explaining their confidence the Democratic candidate will not ban the production method if she becomes president.

Fracking, a major industry in battleground state Pennsylvania, has become a big issue in the presidential campaign. Harris opposed fracking as a U.S. senator from California, but now she says she would not ban it on federal lands as president.

"I think she is changing her views," Baker Hughes oil field services Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Simonelli said on the sidelines of the GasTech conference in Houston, when asked about Harris.

Harris's Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, supports fracking and says he believes Harris would seek to ban it.

The head of the largest U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter in a separate conversation at GasTech said Harris had to pivot to being more open to fracking, because natural gas prices would be much higher without it.

Cheniere Energy CEO Jack Fusco, whose Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana is the largest U.S. LNG export plant, said he trusts Harris's support of fracking unless proven otherwise and wants cooler heads to prevail on the energy transition debate.

Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill, whose Australian energy company is buying U.S. LNG plant developer Tellurian, voiced the same rationale.

"If you stop fracking in the U.S., it will be devastating for the economy," O’Neill said, adding Harris may not have understood that when she opposed fracking.

"I suspect the statements she made earlier were made without full understanding of the benefit and potential consequences," O'Neill said.

Harris is locked in a tight race with Trump, and both are campaigning hard in Pennsylvania, one of the nation's largest producers of natural gas.

Several executives at the conference also called on the Biden administration to make it easier for U.S. companies to export LNG. The White House in January paused new LNG permits to consider the environmental impact.

"You gotta stop this crazy LNG pause from going forward," said ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance. A debate over whether one is pro or against fracking "is not the right question", he added.

(Reporting by Curtis Williams; additional reporting by Georgina McCartney and Sabrina Valle; writing by Peter Henderson; Editing by David Gregorio and Sonali Paul)