Highlights
Crude oil futures lost a dollar Thursday morning and closed about 40¢ lower after President Donald Trump repeated a pledge to raise U.S. oil production to lower energy costs. That statement unnerved traders despite Trump also said sanctions would be enforced and new sanctions applied that would eventually drop Iran’s crude oil exports to zero. Iran exported about 1.7 million barrels per day in 2024, up from 1.4 in 2023 and 900,000 barrels per day in 2022.
With crude oil futures down $8 from its 15 January high, it was a bit surprising the market completely ignored Trump’s statement to remove 1.7 million barrels from the daily world exports of 15.2 million barrels (11.2%).
“I don’t think today that production in the US is constrained,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said in November. “So, I don’t know that there’s an opportunity to unleash a lot of production.”