Oil prices settled roughly flat Thursday, recovering from the day’s worst losses that came shortly after President Trump called for Opec to boost crude production to lower prices.
“Very important that OPEC increase the flow of Oil. World Markets are fragile, price of Oil getting too high. Thank you!” Trump tweeted.
Futures hit a session low immediately following Trump’s comments, but then rallied above pre-tweet levels.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled 11 cents lower, at $59.30 a barrel. The contract Thursday fell as low as $58.20/Bbl, Kallanish Energy reports.
International Brent crude futures fell a penny, to $67.82/Bbl yesterday, after earlier falling to $66.54/Bbl following Trump’s tweet.
Brent has risen roughly 25% in 2019, helped by production cuts by Opec+, the group of countries that includes most of Opec, plus other producer-nations led by Russia.
The group agreed to cut 1.2 million barrels per day (Mmbpd) of output at the beginning of this year.
However, Saudi Arabia is having a hard time convincing Russia to stay in the deal, and Moscow may agree only to a three-month extension, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and Iran have restricted those countries’ oil exports and helped raise crude prices this year.
Analysts told Reuters they expected the U.S. in early May to extend some sanction waivers on Iranian oil, but might reduce the number of countries receiving them.
The 180-day exemptions were granted in November to China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey and South Korea.
In addition to U.S. sanctions, power blackouts this month have paralyzed Venezuela’s oil industry. The country’s main oil export port of Jose and four crude upgraders needed to convert Venezuela’s heavy oil into exportable grades, were halted this week, numerous media reported.
Demand concerns due to economic uncertainty linked to the U.S.-Chinese trade war have capped prices.
U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week by 2.8 million barrels (Mmbbl), compared with analysts’ expectations for a drop of 1.2 Mmbbl, the Energy Information Administration said.
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