Energy secretary’s former firm plummets after Trump tariff escalation

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.

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.