Oil prices up as Trump says OPEC+ should double cuts

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Crude oil prices were up on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that OPEC+ is to double its oil production cut level to balance the market.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $32.20 per barrel at 0627 GMT for a 1.35% increase after closing Monday at $31.74 a barrel.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $22.62 a barrel at the same time for a 0.93% gain after ending the previous day at $22.41 per barrel.

"Having been involved in the negotiations, to put it mildly, the number that OPEC+ is looking to cut is 20 Million Barrels a day, not the 10 Million that is generally being reported," Trump said Monday via Twitter.

"If anything near this happens, and the World gets back to business from the Covid 19 disaster, the Energy Industry will be strong again, far faster than currently anticipated," he added.

Trump also thanked Russia and Saudi Arabia in particular, the two leaders that led the 23 oil-producing countries in the OPEC+ group.

OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, announced late Sunday that they would lower their collective crude oil production by 10 million barrels per day (bpd) beginning on May 1 for an initial two-month period.

Some 15-20 million bpd of oversupply is estimated this month until OPEC+ cuts take effect on May 1.

The 10 million bpd of OPEC+ production curb could increase to 20 million bpd if other oil producing countries outside the OPEC+ group, such as the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Norway, also lower their individual oil outputs next month.