WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, signaled Friday that its 18-month-old quest to drive up crude prices and drain global inventories might be coming to an end.
And according to the top official in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, one reason for the change in outlook was an angry tweet by President Donald Trump.
Crude oil prices tumbled $2.83, or 4 percent, to $67.88 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange after Saudi Arabia and Russia appeared to near an agreement to boost production.
The drop erased a three-week rally that was based in large part on geopolitical worries about unrest in Venezuela and U.S. calls to curtail purchases of Iranian oil.
On Friday after meeting his Russian counterpart in St. Petersburg, Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih acknowledged the “anxiety” of oil-consuming nations and said OPEC and its allies, led by Russia, were “likely” to increase output in the second half of the year. The next OPEC meeting is June 22.
In a tweet, Al-Falih said that in recent talks with Nur Bekri, vice chairman of China’s National Development Reform Commission, “I reiterated Saudi’s commitment, in collaboration with other producers, to guarantee availability of sufficient oil supply to compensate for potential loss & to meet rising demand.”
OPEC and Russia have been keeping output below capacity since November 2016. During that time, prices have more than doubled.
