OREANDA-NEWS. July 24, 2017. President Donald Trump will soon need to decide how to enforce a plan for "American pipelines" that has created a clash between the energy sector and steel and pipeline manufacturers.

The US Commerce Department says it is on schedule to send its plan to the White House by 23 July. The agency has spent the last six months working under instructions to develop a way to maximize the use of US steel and iron in new oil and gas pipelines.

Trump requested the plan on 24 January, the same day he ordered his administration to expedite approval of the 830,000 b/d Keystone XL crude pipeline.He has suggested that his administration will set a stringent domestic content mandate for new pipelines, without providing details about how to achieve such a requirement.

"If they want a pipeline in the US, they are going to use pipe that is made in the US," Trump said in February at a conservative political event. In a joint session of Congress the same month, Trump said he issued a directive that "new American pipelines be made with American steel."

The oil and gas industry has warned that a strict "Buy America" requirement for pipelines would directly undermine Trump's push to increase energy production. US manufacturers, they say, cannot produce enough pipeline to meet demand, particularly large-diameter pipes with high-quality steel, creating the potential for higher prices and delays caused by pipeline shortages.

Domestic steel and pipeline producers have said those fears are overblown and urged the White House to follow through on efforts to bring back manufacturing jobs to the US. Some companies have asked the administration to consider conditioning federal approval of oil and gas pipeline projects on maximizing the use of domestic steel and iron.

But oil and gas officials expect the White House to heed their warnings and soften its push for a strict Buy America mandate for pipelines. Instead they expect the administration to put new tariffs on imported steel. That would hurt pipeline construction, but not as much as a 100pc domestic content mandate, industry lobbyists say.