Opinion

Trump’s Middle East energy victories are a huge reminder of America's dominance

Three energy deals in two months reveal how the president reshaped Gulf partnerships

By Victoria Coates Fox News

Published May 4, 2026 7:00am EDT

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In May 2025, the first foreign trip of President Donald Trump’s second term took him to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Widely credited with cementing regional support for the military operation against Iran known as Midnight Hammer, less well recognized is how that trip positioned the United States at the center of a reset of global energy markets.

Three momentous events over the last two months suggest these efforts are bearing fruit: Saudi Arabia’s 20-year natural-gas contract with Louisiana producer Caturus Energy, Qatar’s participation in the opening of the Golden Pass natural gas export facility in Texas, and the UAE’s announcement that it is leaving the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC.

On Feb. 24, just days before the conflict with Iran began, Saudi Arabia announced a 20-year contract to import natural gas from the American producer Caturus’s Commonwealth liquefied natural gas (LNG) division. No longer will the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, two of the world’s largest energy producers, have a straightforward — if sometimes fraught — relationship between an importer and exporter, as has been the case for the last eight decades. They are instead embarking on an........

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