Oil steadies on supply risks, OPEC+ output increase
LONDON :Oil prices held steady on Wednesday after the U.S. barred Chevron from exporting crude from Venezuela, but an expected decision from OPEC+ later this week to increase production in July capped gains.
Brent crude futures was up 6 cents, or 0.1 per cent, to $64.15 a barrel by 0852 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 8 cents, or around 0.2 per cent, at $60.99 a barrel.
The Trump administration has issued a new authorisation for U.S.-major Chevron that would allow it to keep assets in Venezuela but not export oil or expand activities, Reuters reported on Tuesday citing sources.
The downside in oil was also limited by production shutdowns and evacuations in Canada's Alberta province due to a wildfire, and talk of further sanctions on Russia by the U.S., said PVM analyst Tamas Varga.
However the possibility OPEC+ may decide to increase production at a meeting this week limited gains in price.
A full meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, together known as OPEC+, is scheduled for Wednesday.
A July output hike could be decided on Saturday when eight members of the group hold talks, according to sources.
Despite this, prices could respond positively in coming weeks and months if there is progress on global trade talks or resolving U.S.-Iranian frictions, said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade in a note.
Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said on Wednesday it might allow the U.N. nuclear watchdog to send U.S. inspectors to visit Iranian nuclear sites if Tehran's nuclear talks with Washington succeed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Abrego Garcia, mistakenly deported, is returned to US to face migrant smuggling charges
WASHINGTON: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador by the Trump administration, was flown back to the United States to face criminal charges of transporting illegal immigrants within the country, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday (Jun 6). Abrego Garcia's return marks a turning point in a case that became a flashpoint for critics of President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration policies, who pointed to it as a sign that the administration was disregarding civil liberties in its push to step up deportations. The 29-year-old Salvadoran, whose wife and young child in Maryland are US citizens, appeared in federal court in Nashville on Friday evening. His arraignment was set for Jun 13, when he will enter a plea, according to local media reports. Until then, he will remain in federal custody. If he is convicted, he would be deported to El Salvador after serving his sentence, Bondi said. The Trump administration has said Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation that his lawyers deny. Officials on Friday portrayed the indictment of Abrego Garcia by a grand jury in Tennessee as vindication of their approach to immigration enforcement. "The man has a horrible past and I could see a decision being made, bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that it was the US Justice Department that decided to bring Abrego Garcia back. According to the indictment, Abrego Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators as part of a smuggling ring to bring immigrants to the US illegally, and then transport them from the US-Mexico border to other destinations in the country. Abrego Garcia often picked up migrants in Houston, and made more than 100 trips between Texas and Maryland between 2016 and 2025, the indictment said. The indictment also alleges Abrego Garcia transported firearms and drugs. According to the indictment, one of Abrego Garcia's co-conspirators belonging to the same ring was involved in the transportation of migrants whose tractor trailer overturned in Mexico in 2021, resulting in 50 deaths. Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, called the criminal charges "fantastical" and a "kitchen sink" of allegations. "This is all based on the statements of individuals who are currently either facing prosecution or in federal prison," he said. "I want to know what they offered those people." Abrego Garcia was deported on Mar 15, more than two months before the charges were filed. He was briefly held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), despite an immigration judge's 2019 order barring him from being sent to El Salvador because he would likely be persecuted by gangs. At a press conference, Bondi said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele had agreed to return Abrego Garcia after US officials presented his government with an arrest warrant. "The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring," Bondi said at a press conference. In a court filing on Friday, federal prosecutors asked a judge to have Abrego Garcia detained pending trial. They said Abrego Garcia got into MS-13 in El Salvador by murdering a rival gang member's mother, citing a co-conspirator whom they did not name. The indictment did not charge Abrego Garcia with murder. If convicted, Abrego Garcia could face 10 years in prison for each migrant he transported, prosecutors said. That means he could be locked away for the rest of his life, they said. TENSIONS WITH THE COURTS The case has become a symbol of escalating tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary, which has blocked a number of the president's signature policies. More recently, the US Supreme Court has backed Trump's hardline approach to immigration in other cases. After his lawyers challenged the basis for his deportation, the US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying the government had cited no basis for what she called his "warrantless arrest". US District Judge Paula Xinis has opened a probe into what, if anything, the Trump administration had done to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information. That led to concerns among Trump's critics that his administration would openly defy court orders. In a court filing on Friday, Justice Department lawyers told Xinis that Abrego Garcia's return meant they were in compliance with the order to facilitate his return. Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia's return did not mean the government was in compliance, asserting that his client must be placed in immigration proceedings before the same judge who handled his 2019 case. Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator from Maryland who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, said in a statement on Friday that the Trump administration has "finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States". "The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along," Van Hollen said.
CNA
3 hours ago
- CNA
US, China to hold trade talks on Jun 9 in London, Trump says
WASHINGTON: Three of President Donald Trump's top aides will face their Chinese counterparts in London on Monday (Jun 9) for talks to resolve a trade dispute between the world's two largest economies that has kept global markets on edge. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent Washington in the talks, said Trump, who announced the talks in a post on his Truth Social platform but provided no more details. It was not immediately clear who would represent China. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more details. "The meeting should go very well," Trump wrote. Trump also said on Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to restart the flow of rare earth minerals and magnets to the US. Asked directly by a reporter aboard Air Force One whether Xi had agreed to do so, Trump replied: "Yes, he did." He added: "We're very far advanced on the China deal. The scheduling of the meeting comes a day after Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare leader-to-leader call amid weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals. Trump and Xi agreed to visit one another and asked their staffs to hold talks in the meantime. Both countries are under pressure to relieve tensions, with the global economy under pressure over Chinese control over the rare earth mineral exports of which it is the dominant producer and investors more broadly anxious about Trump's wider effort to impose tariffs on goods from most US trading partners. China, meanwhile, has seen its own supply of key US imports like chip-design software and nuclear plant parts curtailed. The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 in Geneva to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump's January inauguration. That preliminary deal sparked a global relief rally in stock markets, and US indexes that had been in or near bear market levels have recouped the lion's share of their losses. The S&P 500 stock index, which at its lowest point in early April was down nearly 18 percent after Trump unveiled his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs on goods from across the globe, is now only about 2 percent below its record high from mid-February. The final third of that rally followed the US-China truce struck in Geneva. Still, that temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship, from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and US complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly threatened an array of punitive measures on trading partners, only to revoke some of them at the last minute. The on-again, off-again approach has baffled world leaders and spooked business executives. Beijing sees mineral exports as a source of leverage, halting those exports could put domestic political pressure on the Republican US president if economic growth sags because companies cannot make mineral-powered products. In recent years, the United States has identified China as its top geopolitical rival and the only country in the world able to challenge the US economically and militarily.
Business Times
3 hours ago
- Business Times
Crude climbs on US jobs report, China talks
[HOUSTON] Crude rose more than US$1 a barrel on Friday, posting its first weekly gain in three weeks after a favourable US jobs report and resumed trade talks between the US and China, raising hopes for growth in the world's two largest economies. Brent crude futures settled at US$66.47 a barrel, up US$1.13, or 1.73 per cent. US West Texas Intermediate crude finished at US$64.58, up US$1.21 or 1.91 per cent. Both benchmarks settled with weekly gains after declining for two straight weeks. Brent has advanced 2.75 per cent this week, while WTI is trading 4.9 per cent higher. 'I think the jobs report was Goldilocks,' said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with the Price Futures Group. 'It was not too hot, not too cold but just right to increase the chances for an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.' The US Labor Department's monthly employment report showed the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 per cent last month. Employers added 139,000 jobs, which combined with downward revisions to prior months' estimates showed a cooling in labour demand but nothing abrupt; by comparison, monthly job gains averaged 160,000 last year. A rate cut by the US central bank, much desired by President Donald Trump, could boost economic growth and demand for petroleum. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'This market had priced in a lot of bad options,' said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital. 'None of it has come to pass. Opec+ held the line. There have been talks between China and the US, though the details are sketchy, at least they didn't fly apart like Elon (Musk) and Donald (Trump).' China's official Xinhua news agency said trade talks between Xi and Trump took place at Washington's request on Thursday. Trump said the call had led to a 'very positive conclusion', adding the US was 'in very good shape with China and the trade deal'. The oil market continued to swing with news on tariff negotiations and data showing how trade uncertainty and the impact of the US levies are flowing through into the global economy. On Saturday, Opec+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, agreed to ramp up output by a previously announced 411,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July. The group rejected a Saudi recommendation for a bigger output hike, part of a broader strategy to win back market share for Opec+. 'The market looks balanced in Q2/Q3 on our estimates as oil demand rises in summer and peaks in July-August, matching supply increases from Opec+,' HSBC said in a note. The US oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by four to 559 in the week to June 6, the lowest since November 2021, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Friday. Oil rigs fell by nine to 442 this week, while gas rigs rose by five to 114, Baker Hughes said. REUTERS
