Oil prices fell on Friday and settled on track for their\nbiggest monthly drop in six months as US President Donald Trump’s comments\nescalated the trade tensions between the two countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brent crude futures are headed for a 10% drop in May, and\nWTI is down 13%, the biggest monthly loss since last November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brent crude futures reached $65.72 last month, down $ 1.15\nfrom the closing of the last session, according to the International Oil Price\nIndex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US crude oil futures were $55.85 a barrel, down 74 cents\nfrom the last session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Donald Trump pledged on Thursday to impose\ntariffs on all goods from Mexico unless illegal immigration was halted, raising\nconcerns about economic growth and oil appetite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The decision conceptually sends shivers down,”\nthe company said in a note. “The mood is now definitely a risk, and this\nputs oil under pressure at the moment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Refineries import about 680,000 barrels per day of Mexican\ncrude. The 5% tariff adds an additional $ 2 million to the cost of its daily\npurchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mexico’s trade dispute adds to a trade war between the\nUnited States and China, which many analysts expect will lead to a recession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China’s factory activity contracted more than expected in\nMay, an official survey showed on Friday. Crude oil prices also came under\npressure from a return of US oil production to a record 12.3 million bpd and a\nmuch lower than expected drop in US inventories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude\nstocks fell by about 300,000 barrels last week to 476.49 million barrels. That\nwas far short of analysts’ forecasts of a 900,000-barrel drop in a Reuters\npoll, well below the 5.3-million-barrel drop seen by the API industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Reuters survey found that an increase in production by\nSaudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter in May, was not enough to offset the\ndrop in Iranian exports, which collapsed after the United States tightened its\ngrip on Tehran. Iran’s special representative to Iran, Brian Hook, said on\nThursday Washington would punish any country buying oil from Iran after the\nexemptions expire on May 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Thursday that\ncountries such as China and India, which issued exemptions in November to buy\nIranian oil, could continue buying after May 2 until they reach a negotiable\nceiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oil prices fell on Friday and settled on track for their biggest monthly drop in six months as US President Donald Trump’s comments escalated the trade tensions between the two countries. Brent crude futures are […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,4],"tags":[42,48,24,41,44,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1214,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions\/1214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}