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

FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Export-Import bank is slated to vote Thursday on a nearly $5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project in Africa that is vehemently opposed by U.S. oil and gas industry leaders, including President Donald Trump’s own former energy secretary.

Rick Perry, who served as U.S. secretary of energy during Trump’s first term, said on the eve of the vote that he sees the bank’s potential authorization of the Africa project as a direct contradiction to Trump’s energy agenda – and one that could jeopardize Trump’s longtime goals of restoring U.S. energy dominance in his second White House term.

“I’m not sure what the strategy is” with the project, Perry told Fox News Digital in an interview. “I just think it’s counter to the president’s ‘America first’ agenda,” which focuses heavily on unleashing oil and gas production, including LNG exports.  

Industry concerns reached a fever pitch this week ahead of a scheduled ExIm board vote Thursday morning on whether to underwrite the roughly $4.7 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project that France’s TotalEnergies is pursuing in Mozambique, off the East Coast of Africa.

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Rick Perry, U.S. secretary of energy, speaks to members of the media outside the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019.  (Alex Edelman/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Energy officials warned that the project, if authorized, would pose a direct threat to U.S. LNG projects and export terminals, competing “molecule for molecule” with the U.S. and massive supply contracts it hopes to ink with buyers in Japan and Asia, whose consumers rely heavily on imported energy supplies, including natural gas. 

Demand from these countries is rapidly growing, and the U.S. is hoping to be the answer to that problem with its Alaska LNG project, which Trump touted directly during his first address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.

The Alaska project, which cools piped gas into a liquid that can be transported overseas, is key to quickly supplying Asian markets, and the Trump administration is hoping to use the demand to overcome existing hurdles – including pushback from environmental activists and billions in additional financing needed in order to bring it online. 

So, the Export-Import bank’s vote to fund a foreign competitor’s project has many U.S. energy officials scratching their heads. 

“The U.S. government funding of major foreign projects would be a direct competitive threat to the extension of U.S. exports,” one senior industry official with knowledge of the project told Fox News Digital in an interview.

This includes U.S. projects like Alaska LNG, an export that risks being stymied completely by Mozambique, officials noted. They’d be competing for exactly the same market – and Mozambique, unlike Alaska, is rife with conflict and civil unrest. 

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The liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Sohshu Maru approaches Jera Co.’s Futtsu Thermal Power Station in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.  (Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Trump used much of his time on the campaign trail in 2024 vowing to unleash U.S. oil and gas production and natural gas exports, including LNG shipments, which were temporarily paused under the Biden administration in what Trump described at the time as a “disastrous” policy.

Importantly, supply contracts are often signed for longer terms (10 to 20 years) than other fossil fuel contracts – meaning that the U.S. being shut out could carry long-term risks.

A former senior administration official noted that the Alaska LNG project would be nearly impossible to get off the ground if the TotalEnergies project were funded. 

“It’s pretty impactful,” the former official added. “If we have Mozambique come online, we’re undercutting our ability, or the ability of even the Canadians, to develop their export operations on the West Coast.” The former senior official, as well as the industry official, spoke on background due to the sensitive nature of the project and pending ExIm vote.

“Each molecule that comes out of Mozambique is directly competing with U.S. molecules,” the industry official said. 

“The reason why that really matters is U.S. energy projects are built not only for the Gulf of America, but also for states across the country, where subcontractors and contractors support the building of these billions and billions of dollars of projects and gas supplies.” This includes places like Appalachian Pennsylvania, Ohio and more.

The ExIm board still could vote not to authorize the funds sought by TotalEnergies for the Mozambique project. They could also postpone the vote further. 

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President Donald Trump touted the Alaska LNG project in his address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Mar. 4, 2025. (Win McNamee/Pool/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

So, why would the bank vote to undercut Trump’s policies? Industry officials and former administration officials noted that ExIm’s current investment policies do not currently prioritize supporting U.S. demand-side infrastructure – an effort that has sparked reform efforts in Trump’s first term. 

 “If we want to sell American products into those countries, then let’s have that conversation. But when we have this extraordinary resource, it’s a national security issue as well as an economic issue,” Perry said.

“This facility that we’re talking about is in direct competition with the Alaska moving gas from the North Slope of Alaska southwards inlet, fractionating it and exporting it to the same markets,” he added.

Perry, who previously served as governor of Texas and graduated from Texas A&M, quipped that the ExIm bank’s approval of funding for the Mozambique LNG project would be akin to “the Aggies giving money to the University of Texas [at Austin]” to support their football program, referencing the decades-long rivalry between the two Texas schools.

“If you test one of the major tenets of Donald Trump’s campaign, it was America first, and this is not America first,” Perry said. “And just on the face of that, I don’t think this should go forward, and I don’t think it will go forward.”

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The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the vote, or Trump’s knowledge of the ExIm decision.

“I think as soon as the president gets wind of this, he will put a stop to it,” Perry said.