Yahoo Finance Oil Prices Slip as Trump Urges OPEC to Lower Prices
Investing.com - Oil prices edged down on Friday in Asia after U.S. President Donald Trump called for OPEC to lower crude prices ahead of their upcoming meeting in Algeria on Sunday.
Crude Oil WTI Futures for November delivery fell 0.18% to $70.19 a barrel at 1:10AM ET (05:10 GMT), while Brent Oil Futures for November delivery remained unchanged at $78.7 per barrel.
Trump tweeted on Thursday, “We protect the countries of the Middle East, they would not be safe for very long without us, and yet they continue to push for higher and higher oil prices! We will remember. The OPEC monopoly must get prices down now!”
OPEC and non-OPEC members, including Russia, are set to meet on Sunday in Algeria to talk about sharing supply increases to offset a shortfall of Iranian exports due to U.S. crude sanctions that will take effect in November.
The remarks put “a focus on the likely supply impacts of U.S.-led Iran sanctions. The market had until that point been trading fluidly with the assumption that Saudi Arabia is now comfortable with Brent at $80 or even higher, which is challenging the market’s long-held supposition that prompt Brent between $70 and $80 was OPEC’s sweet spot,” said OANDA head of trading for Asia-Pacific Stephen Innes.
A source told Reuters Saudi Arabia is worried that the spike in oil prices will cause slams from Trump. It is also concerned about a lack of spare oil capacity.
“It’s complicated. Saudi Arabia has to balance oil supply and demand, and it has to balance oil prices so they don’t rise too much before the U.S. elections. It’s also political because the Saudis don’t want to pump too much oil then the Iranians complain to OPEC that it is taking [Iran’s] market share. They also don’t want oil prices to fall too much,” the source said.
In response, Iran’s oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh warned that the country would veto any OPEC decision that can harm the Islamic Republic and that some oil producers are trying to create another forum that supports U.S. policies hostile to the government in Tehran. He did not specify any actions on how to block the decision.
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