Oil prices reversed gains and dipped early on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that oil prices are “artificially very high” and “will not be accepted”, the day after the price of oil reached its highest level since the end of 2014.
At 08:44 a.m. EDT on Friday, WTI Crude was down 0.57 percent at $67.94 and Brent Crude was down 0.66 percent at $73.29.
President Trump tweeted early on Friday:
“Looks like OPEC is at it again. With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!”
The tweet came a day after oil prices reached end-2014 highs, with WTI Crude nearing $70 a barrel early on Thursday, following another drop in U.S. inventories and talk of Saudi Arabia reportedly pushing for oil prices as high as $100 a barrel.
Trump’s comments also come on the day on which energy ministers from OPEC and their Russia-led non-OPEC partners were meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss the state of the oil market.
Yesterday, a meeting of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers found that oil inventories in developed economies had dropped to just 12 million barrels over the official target of the cuts—the five-year average.
After today’s meeting, the energy ministers of OPEC’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia and of Russia hinted at countering strategies, according to the first reports out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that despite the drop in global oil inventories, there is still work to be done.
“We have to be patient, we don’t want to jump the gun, we don’t want to be complacent and listen to some of the noise that ‘mission accomplished’ and things of that sort,” al-Falih said.
Russia’s Alexander Novak, for his part, hinted to CNBC that Russia may not stay committed to the deal until the end of the year, although he dodged attempts to get a solid answer. According to Russia’s TASS agency, Novak also said that at the June meeting the partners could consider reducing the quotas in the production cut deal.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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