In one of his more controversial decisions last week, President Trump said the U.S. would impose an additional 25% on many Indian imports—because of India’s imports of Russian crude oil. The news lifted oil prices, and Indian refiners suspended their Russian oil orders.
Kuwait expects oil prices to remain below $72 per barrel in the near term, Tareq Al-Roumi, the Oil Minister of one of OPEC’s top producers, said on Thursday.
Crude oil prices were headed for a steep weekly drop as of Friday morning, with a combination of tariff fears and OPEC+ production instilling a strong sense of bearishness in oil traders.
As regards OPEC+ production policy, the analysts said that “While OPEC+ policy remains flexible, we assume OPEC+ will keep its production quota unchanged after September as we expect the pace of builds in OECD commercial stocks to accelerate and seasonal demand tailwinds to fade away.”
Analysts note that much of the actual production growth since April has come from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with other OPEC+ members struggling to meet their targets. RBC Capital Markets’ Helima Croft said the strategy has favored producers with spare capacity, as prices have held steady compared to early-year lows despite rising supply.
The U.S. government has made it clear it wants to prevent the Venezuelan government from reaping any financial benefit from the country’s oil wealth, but this has proved difficult, since U.S. refiners are sizable buyers of Venezuelan crude and the chief reason why Chevron was granted that sanction exemption. Last year, imports of Venezuelan crude in the U.S. hit peaks of some 300,000 barrels daily, per data from Kpler.
Crude oil futures have jumped to the highest levels in six weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump ratcheted up threats to slap Russia with extra sanctions and tariffs unless it agrees to a ceasefire with Ukraine. Brent crude for September delivery gained 1.2% to trade at $73.34/barrel in Wednesday’s morning session, while WTI crude was up 1.5% to $70.24. Trump told […]
Oil prices traded flat on Thursday in Asian markets, holding on to gains from earlier in the week as traders continued to weigh intensifying geopolitical risks and new tariff deals that could reshape global crude flows.
OPEC+ stuck to the script at Monday’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting, offering no changes to current output policy and little surprise for market watchers. The virtual meeting—its 61st—reviewed production data from May and June and confirmed what most already suspected: while the group remains on track with its broad plans, not every member is keeping pace.
We are still in the early innings of the ongoing earnings season, with only a third of S&P 500 companies having returned their second quarter scorecards. According to FactSet, blended earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 is clocking in at 6.4% Y/Y, the lowest clip in six quarters.