Offshore staff
NEW YORK CITY – Crude oil prices rallied sharply on Thursday after President Donald Trump said he expected Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut back on oil production to save the embattled oil and gas industry.
Brent crude oil jumped as much as 47%, to $36.29/bbl, while West Texas Intermediate crude rose 35%, to $27.39/bbl. Crude oil prices started rallying on Wednesday after Trump first signaled a potential agreement between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Trump provided different volume estimates in separate tweets, first mentioning a cutback of about 10 million barrels and then suggesting it could be "as high as 15 million barrels."
The president said on Wednesday that he believed a deal would be reached within days. Such a deal is expected to lower production and bring prices back up.
Trump also said he had invited American oil executives to the White House to discuss measures to aid the oil industry, which has been hurt by a slump in demand due to both the coronavirus outbreak and the price war.
The oil strategy meeting would include CEOs from Exxon, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Devon Energy, Phillips 66, and Energy Transfer Partners, as well as the former Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm, according to CNBC.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have signaled support for cooperation among producer countries, but there have been no signs of a strategy shift as of yet, the Financial Times reported.
04/02/2020
