Oil prices fall after Donald Trump turns on Opec
‘The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up & they are doing little to help,’ Trump tweeted
London — Oil fell on Thursday after US President Donald Trump demanded Opec cut crude prices, but the market found some support from an Iranian threat to block shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The escalating trade row between Washington and Beijing triggered another sell-off in Asian stocks and was felt in oil markets, with China warning it could introduce duties on US crude imports. Brent crude futures were at $77.89 a barrel at 8.30am GMT, down 35c. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 11c at $74.03. "If Trump continues to believe that Opec is not doing enough, we would not rule out an SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) release from the US, or possibly even export restrictions on petroleum products," ING said in a note. "However, with plenty of uncertainty over Iranian supply, and the Syncrude outage in Canada, the market is likely to remain fairly well supported in the near term." Trump on Wednesday accused the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Cou...
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