Brent Crude Jumps Above $72 Per Barrel on Trade Optimism

By Adedapo Adesanya

Brent crude rose above $72 per barrel on Tuesday, gaining $2.47 or 3.53 per cent to close at $72.51 per barrel, as President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine and on optimism that a trade war between the US and its major trading partners was easing.

Also, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $2.50 or 3.75 per cent to settle at $69.21 per barrel as Mr Trump threatened to start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia “10 days from today” if Moscow did not make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine.

This was further buoyed by market optimism that US-China trade talks could bear fruit after President Trump squeezed out a deal from the European Union.

The trade agreement between the US and the European Union, while imposing a 15 per cent import tariff on most EU goods, sidestepped a full-blown trade war between the two major allies that would have rippled across nearly a third of global trade and dimmed the outlook for fuel demand.

The agreement also calls for $750 billion of EU purchases of US energy over the next three years, which analysts say the bloc may have challenges meeting, while European companies are to invest $600 billion in the US over Mr Trump’s term.

Meanwhile, the US government added that its secondary tariff legislation on sanctioned Russian oil, could see China face high tariffs if the world’s largest oil importer continued its Russian oil purchases.

Ahead of the full meeting by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) this Sunday, ministers from the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) reiterated the oil group’s need for better compliance with oil production quotas, asking non-compliant nations for compensation plans by August 18.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the US rose this week, adding 1.539 million barrels in the week ending July 25. So far this year, crude oil inventories are up nearly 13 million barrels.

Official data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will be released later on Wednesday.