Oil edges down as traders weigh Trump's latest India threat
Brent traded near US$68 a barrel after shedding more than 6% over the previous three sessions, while West Texas Intermediate was just shy of US$66.
Trump said he would be "substantially raising' the tariff on Indian exports to the US over the nation's purchases of Russian oil as part of a bid to force Moscow to agree a truce in Ukraine.
New Delhi slammed the move as unjustified.
Oil has been on a round trip, rising a few dollars above $70 and then falling back, as traders try to gauge whether Trump will follow through on his threats to punish Russian oil buyers.
Crude prices have held up in recent months in part because inventory builds haven't appeared near vital pricing points and instead have been concentrated on China.
"It's pretty hard to predict what's going to happen between Russian sanctions, Iranian sanctions, Chinese storage, and then the underlying fundamentals of the oil markets," BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Murray Auchincloss said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
"It's sanctions on Russia, sanctions on Iran, Chinese behavior on storage. Those are the things that'll drive oil market prices moving forward.'
The US president's latest warning to India came ahead of his Aug 8 deadline for Russia to reach a truce with Ukraine.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to visit Moscow on Wednesday, Tass reported.
India emerged as the biggest buyer of Russian seaborne exports of crude following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, soaking up discounted barrels shunned by western nations and ramping up purchases from almost zero to about one-third of imports.
China is also a major taker of Moscow's oil.
The comments came just days after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies announced another bumper output hike, fully completing the return of one layer of supply cuts.
The group will now have to decide whether to return more barrels in the coming months, despite forecasts of oversupply into the end of the year.
Against that backdrop, both BP and Saudi Aramco said Tuesday that oil demand is holding up well so far.
Aramco's Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said US tariffs are having a limited impact on oil demand, while consumption is being supported by gasoline and jet fuel use in the US and China. - Bloomberg
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