“We have a lot of its oil”. Trump said that the US may stop oil imports from Saudi Arabia
The white house will consider the possibility of termination of deliveries of crude oil from Saudi Arabia to support the oil industry in the USA. The President of the United States Donald trump said at a briefing on April 20. The transcript of his speech published on the website of the White house press pool.
Trump held a press conference shortly after the U.S. benchmark grade of oil WTI for the first time in history fell to negative values (at the time of the briefing may futures traded at minus $37 per barrel).
Answering the question, not considering whether he is able to stop oil imports from Saudi Arabia, trump said, “Well, I’ll see… I learned this when I went to a briefing… we, of course, a lot of [private] of oil. So I look at it, okay?”
The President of the United States expressed confidence that the decline in oil prices is short-lived. He suggested that during the month the cost of raw materials will rise to $25-28 per barrel.
April 20, the price of WTI for the first time in the history was negative. As the findings of trading on the new York stock exchange, WTI was worth minus $16,74 per barrel. According to the Agency Reuters, 20 APR quotations fell to minus $40 per barrel. By the morning of 21 April the may futures WTI was trading at $1,42 per barrel.
The rapid fall of oil prices caused a record drop in demand for hydrocarbons because of the pandemic coronavirus, and the ensuing economic crisis and fears of traders that storage facilities will soon be filled.
As noted by the professional edition of ICIS, the traders tried to sell the may futures as they are traded today is the last day. However, due to the limited number of customers, the rate has moved into negative territory.
Oil prices decline despite progress in early April, the agreement of the Organization of countries – exporters of oil and its allies to cut oil production to 9.7 million barrels per day in may and June, which is about 10% of the total placed on the market of raw materials. About the same volume should provide countries outside of OPEC, but, as noted by Reuters, this is not enough to remove the excess from the market.
