By Oil prices were on course to end the week lower after US President Donald Trump urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to lower crude prices.
Trump also revealed plans to boost US oil production significantly, which further weighed on prices on Friday.
For the week, Brent crude prices were down more than 3% so far, while West Texas Intermediate oil fell over 4%.
At the time of writing, the price of WTI crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was at $74.48 per barrel, down 0.2% from the previous close.
The price of Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange was at $78.16 per barrel, down 0.2%.
Crude prices have been falling throughout the week after notching up multi-month highs in the previous week.
Prices had fallen as the uncertainty over Trump’s tariff policies, coupled with a ceasefire in Gaza reduced risk premiums on oil.
Trump’s comments at Davos weigh on prices
On Thursday, Trump made an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In his address, he urged Gulf nations to lower oil prices, stating that this could contribute to ending the Russian war in Ukraine.
“If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Right now, the price is high enough that that war will continue – you got to bring down the oil price,” Trump said.
“They should have done it long ago. They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent, for what’s taking place,” Trump added.
In his previous term, President Trump was very vocal about OPEC needing to pump more oil.
Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Group, said:
However, with Russia becoming increasingly more aligned with OPEC members through the OPEC+ alliance, as well as higher fiscal breakeven oil prices for key members, it will be no easy task to convince OPEC to increase output.
US crude stocks lowest since 2022
According to the US Energy Information Administration, crude oil stocks in the country fell by 1.02 million barrels last week.
“This is the ninth consecutive week of declines in crude inventories, which leaves stocks at their lowest level since March 2022,” Patterson said.
This decline came despite refiners slashing run rates, which was driven by maintenance largely in the US Gulf Coast.
Crude oil inputs decreased by 1.13 million barrels per day due to refiners cutting utilization rates by 5.8 percentage points week-on-week.
Meanwhile, trade saw crude imports increase by 621,000 barrels per day on a week-on-week basis and exports rose by 437,000 barrels a day.
The increase in imports was largely driven by stronger flows from Canada.
The fall in stocks provided little relief to oil prices on Friday as bearish signals from Trump and a prospect of supply surplus weighed on sentiments.
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