Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is said to be considering nominating oil and gas mogul Harold Hamm as energy secretary should he become President of the United States.
According sources close to Trump#s campaign, the chief executive of Continental Resources would be the first US Energy Secretary who had been drawn directly from the oil and gas industry since the candidate position was created in 1977.
Up to this point, Hamm has acted as an unoffiakl adviser to Trump.
Dan Eberhart, an oil investor and Republican financier, said he had been told by officials in Trump’s campaign that Hamm is a “leading contender” for the role.
The move is said to have come up in discussion at this weeks Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Hamm, who appeared at the convention, called for expanded drilling and said too much environmental regulation threatened to limit US oil production and increase the country’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil producers.
He said: “Everytime we can’t drill a well in America, terrorism is being funded.
“Every onerous regulation puts American lives at risk.”
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