White House meets with oil, bank, other companies about Russia invasion

President Biden and other administration officials on Monday met with executives from various industries including oil companies, clean energy firms and major banks about the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

A White House readout of the meeting said that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with the CEOs of 16 major companies to discuss the latest developments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The readout also said that Biden joined for part of the discussion.

White House spokesperson Emilie Simons said in an email prior to the meeting that it would feature companies in the financial services space, including Visa, JPMorgan and Bank of America. Simons also said it would include oil companies like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, refiners like Marathon Petroleum, and those in the clean energy sector like Pattern and Invenergy.

Food and agriculture companies Land O’Lakes and Cargill along with manufacturers Dow and US Steel were also expected to attend.

The readout said that officials “conveyed the Administration’s commitment to continue imposing heavy costs on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to degrade Russia’s war machine and support the people of Ukraine, while taking concrete actions to mitigate the price increases on American consumers caused by Putin’s action”

It said they also discussed the need to “work together” on disruptions to global markets and supply chains, especially energy and agriculture, and identify alternative sources of key products. And it said they all committed to “close communication” going forward.

The meeting will be separate from Biden’s expected participation in a Business Roundtable meeting.

The meeting comes as the Biden administration has sought to impose sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and as the conflict has pushed gasoline prices higher.

Updated 5:46 p.m.