Chevron CEO Sees Obligation to Explain Fracking to Politicians

(Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said he’s open to discussing fracking with whoever wins the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Just hours after unveiling plans to double oil production in the Permian Basin over the next five years, Wirth said Tuesday that he and the rest of the energy industry have an “obligation” to explain the process involved in accessing crude trapped in dense shale formations.

Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg have talked about stricter regulation or outright bans on hydraulic fracturing. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has opened up millions of acres of public land to fracking.

“We have an obligation to help people understand how fracking actually works,” Wirth said during an interview on Bloomberg TV. “And look, if there are things that need to be done to help regulate it even better we can talk about that as well.”

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To contact the reporters on this story: Sayer Devlin in New York at sdevlin13@bloomberg.net;Alix Steel in New York at asteel6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net, Joe Carroll, Reg Gale

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