Oil Prices Dip Amid Trump Push for Supply Boost

24 Jan 2025 , 09:53 AM

A day after U.S. President Donald Trump pushed OPEC and its de facto head Saudi Arabia to cut prices in a broad effort to boost petroleum production, oil markets plummeted on Friday.

Brent crude futures were down 50 cents at $77.95 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) fell 31 cents to $74.31 in the United States.

In his remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Trump stated that he would insist that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries lower the price of barrels of crude oil.

Additionally, Trump stated that he would request that Riyadh raise a U.S. investment package to $1 trillion, rather than the $600 billion the Saudi government had previously reported.

Crude futures were also affected by uncertainty around Trump’s tariff policy and the possibility that the recently elected president might advocate for more U.S. oil production, according to analysts.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration said this week that U.S. crude stocks had shrunk to their lowest level since March 2022, which prevented additional declines in oil prices.

Due to a U.S. holiday on Monday, the EIA report was released one day later than planned. It stated that in the week ending January 17, oil stockpiles dropped by 1 million barrels to 411.7 million barrels, the ninth consecutive weekly reduction.

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