ne of President Trump’s first orders of business following the initial burst of executive orders was to declare he would ask OPEC to ramp up its oil production to bring down prices.
Oil edged down as US President Donald Trump’s renewed pledge to drive down the price of crude overshadowed his push for tighter Iranian sanctions.
Quebec has long resisted proposals to build new oil and gas pipelines through its territory. US President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada might change that.
According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other foreign-policy hawks, Chevron has been providing a financial lifeline for Maduro’s regime to enrich itself and suppress civil rights.
China has been importing Iranian oil indirectly via proxies. According to StanChart, crude oil imports from Malaysia clocked in at 1.456 million barrels per day (mb/d) in June, the second-highest monthly average on record.
Canada is the biggest supplier of heavy crude to American refiners, exporting it at a rate of close to 4 million barrels daily, which makes it the biggest exporter of crude oil to the U.S. in general. Mexican crude oil exports north of the border are much smaller, at less than half a million barrels daily, but they still comprise the second-largest share of foreign oil in U.S. refiners’ mix. That fact may have played a role in Trump’s willingness to negotiate new trade deals quickly before the tariffs kick in and retaliation begins.
Venezuela boasts the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and US refiners are chewing through Venezuela’s heavy crude at an increasing pace, reaching a six-year high in December to 300,000 bpd. Venezuela’s oil is critical for US refiners such as Chevron and Valero.
West Texas Intermediate futures spiked as much as 1.5% from their settlement price after Trump made the comments to reporters at the White House. The gain just as quickly evaporated after he said he will decide later tonight on whether to include oil in the tariffs. WTI traded at $73.06 a barrel at 4:10 p.m. in New York.
Oil prices slipped for a second day on Thursday after U.S. crude stockpiles rose more than expected, though attention remained on tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump on Mexico and Canada, the two largest suppliers of crude to the United States.
According to commodity experts, the link between lower oil prices and foreign policy objectives is not a new one: historians have drawn a link between the 1985-86 oil price crash and the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, as well as the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.