Crude prices down
By Sara Israfilbayova
World oil prices decline on July 11 amid a new aggravation of the US-China trade conflict.
Brent crude fell $2.10, or 2.7 percent, to a low of $76.76 before recovering slightly to $77.20, down $1.66, U.S. light crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) supported by a tight North American market, was down 65 cents at $73.46 a barrel, Reuters reported.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. authorities are preparing to impose additional duties on goods from China worth $200 billion. According to sources, the introduction of duties will be a response to the introduction of China’s 25-percent duty on the import of American goods.
Ministry of Commerce of China called the potential measures of Washington “completely unacceptable” and stated that it intends to immediately apply to the WTO with an additional claim in case of introducing new duties.
On Friday, July 6, the 25 percent duty on Chinese exports to the U.S. totaled approximately $34 billion a year. China as a symmetrical retaliatory measure introduced an import duty of 25 percent on the import of an equivalent amount of American goods.
Earlier, OPEC and a group of non-OPEC countries agreed that they would return to 100 percent compliance with previously agreed oil output cuts, after months of underproduction by OPEC countries.
OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached an agreement in December 2016 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices. OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 1.
Non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 1, 2017.
OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.
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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
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