Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices fell more than 3 percent on Tuesday as US President Donald Trump stirred up fears that trade tensions between China and the United States were far from settled amid ongoing negotiations, which is a pointer for oil demand growth.
Following his speech at the 74th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Brent crude futures fell and as the time of this report, it was trading down by $2.16 or 3.39 percent to $61.57 per barrel.
The US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Crude was also down, but in its case by $1.79 at 3.05 percent, at $56.85 per barrel.
At his speech at the UNGA, Trump criticized what he called China’s unfair trade practices and said he would not accept a “bad deal” between the United States and China.
“Not only has China declined to adopt promised reforms, it has embraced an economic model dependent on massive market barriers, heavy state subsidies, currency manipulation, product dumping technology transfers and the theft of intellectual property and also trade secrets on a grand scale,” Trump said.
Oil prices have remained at comparatively elevated levels for the year in the wake of the September 14 attack on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil-processing facility that reduced the Kingdom’s output by 50 percent.
Business Post reported on Monday that Saudi Arabia had restored more than 75 percent of the crude output lost after attacks on its oil installations. It is expected that the world’s op oil exporter would return to full volumes by early next week. READ IT HERE
Also at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump denounced Iran, but said there is a path to peace, which somewhat eased the oil market’s worries about geopolitical risks, analysts said.
“All nations have a duty to act,” Trump said.
“No responsible government should subsidize Iran’s blood lust. As long as Iran’s menacing behavior continues, sanctions will not be lifted, they will be tightened.” he added.
While Iran has been widely blamed for the attacks, it maintains that it was not involved in the strikes on Saudi’s plants which triggered the largest spike in crude prices in decades and renewed concerns of a greater conflict in the Middle East.
Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have said they will not meet on the sidelines of the U.N. despite being in the same place this week.
Following Trump’s speech on Tuesday, Rouhani is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.
