Oil prices were in the red Wednesday, extending the decline in the previous session after U.S. President Donald Trump said he ordered the Treasury Department to "substantially increase" sanctions on Iran.
Trump’s announcement follows attacks on the world’s largest crude-processing plant and oil field in Saudi Arabia that had forced the kingdom to cut its production in half. Oil prices jumped the most in history on Monday as a result of the disruption.
Brent crude oil futures were down 36 cents, or 0.56%, at $64.21 U.S. a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 64 cents, or 1.11%, at $58.68.
The latest comment from the president marks a softening in his rhetoric as he had warned on Sunday that the U.S. was “locked and loaded” to respond to the Saudi incident.
In total, officials say, 50% of the oil production loss from the attack has been restored in the past two days, adding that production capacity would reach 10 million barrels of crude per day (bpd) by the end of this month and 12 million bpd by the end of November.
Trump said Monday he’s in no rush to respond to the coordinated attack.
Meanwhile, oil pared some of its loses Wednesday, after an unexpected rise in crude inventories.
Data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed U.S. crude inventories increased by 1.1 million barrels from the previous week. Analysts expected a decrease of 2.5 million barrels.
