Oil prices fall after Donald Trump turns on Opec

London — Oil fell on Thursday after US President Donald Trump demanded Opec cut crude prices, but the market found some support from an Iranian threat to block shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

The escalating trade row between Washington and Beijing triggered another sell-off in Asian stocks and was felt in oil markets, with China warning it could introduce duties on US crude imports.

Brent crude futures were at $77.89 a barrel at 8.30am GMT, down 35c.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 11c at $74.03.

“If Trump continues to believe that Opec is not doing enough, we would not rule out an SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) release from the US, or possibly even export restrictions on petroleum products,” ING said in a note.

“However, with plenty of uncertainty over Iranian supply, and the Syncrude outage in Canada, the market is likely to remain fairly well supported in the near term.”

Trump on Wednesday accused the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries of driving up fuel prices.

“The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up & they are doing little to help,” Trump wrote on his personal Twitter account. “If anything, they are driving prices higher as the United States defends many of their members for very little $’s.

“This must be a two way street,” he wrote, adding in block capitals, “REDUCE PRICING NOW!”

Opec and a group of non-Opec producers led by Russia started to withhold output in 2017 to prop up the market.

Recent price rises have also been spurred by a US announcement that it plans to reintroduce sanctions against Iran from November, targeting oil exports.