Oil near 3-1/2-year high despite Trump demand that OPEC cut prices

Reuters  |  LONDON 

By and Shadia Nasralla

Brent crude futures were at $78.12 a barrel at 1050 GMT, down 12 cents.

U.S. crude futures were up 32 cents at $74.46, within sight of Tuesday's 3-1/2-year high above $75.

"If Trump continues to believe that are not doing enough, we would not rule out an SPR (Strategic Reserve) release from the U.S., or possibly even export restrictions on products," ING said in a note.

"However with plenty of uncertainty over Iranian supply, and the outage in Canada, the market is likely to remain fairly well supported in the near term."

Trump again on Wednesday accused the Organization of the Exporting Countries of driving up fuel prices.

"The Monopoly must remember that are up & they are doing little to help," Trump wrote on his personal account. "If anything, they are driving prices higher as the defends many of their members for very little $'s."

"This must be a two way street," he wrote, adding in block capitals, "REDUCE PRICING NOW!"

OPEC together with a group of non-OPEC producers led by started to withhold output in 2017 to prop up the market.

Recent price rises have also been spurred by a U.S. announcement that it plans to reintroduce sanctions against from November, targeting

OPEC and said in June they were willing to raise output to address concerns of supply shortages due to unplanned disruptions from to Libya, and likely also to replace a potential fall in Iranian supplies due to U.S. sanctions.

Despite these measures, said in a July 4 note to clients that "the market will remain in deficit" in the second half of the year.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that might block through the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for transporting crude in the Gulf.

"If they want to stop Iranian oil exports, we will not allow any to pass through the Strait of Hormuz," was quoted as saying.

(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Dale Hudson)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, July 05 2018. 16:46 IST