Investing.com - WTI crude oil prices settled lower Thursday after President Donald Trump demanded OPEC find a way slash oil prices.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for November delivery fell 32 cents settle at $70.80 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent fell 1.03% to trade at $78.58 a barrel.
"We protect the countries of the Middle East, they would not be safe for very long without us, and yet they continue to push for higher and higher oil prices! We will remember," Trump said in a tweet. "The OPEC monopoly must get prices down now!"
This is not the first time Trump has lashed out at OPEC for rising oil prices. Earlier this year, he accused the cartel of artificially boosting prices.
Trump's jawboning on oil prices comes just days after Saudi officials reportedly said they would be comfortable with oil prices above $80 a barrel.
Still, sentiment on oil prices continued to lean positive as major oil producers, part of the production-cut agreement, show no sign of weakening their commitment to increasing output to avert a global supply shortage ahead of U.S. sanctions on Iran due early November.
Russian oil production is fluctuating between 11.29 and 11.36 million barrels a day, setting a new post-Soviet record, Bloomberg, reported, citing a senior government official.
Members of the oil-production cut agreement agreed in June to life output curbs to avert the prospect of global supply shortage amid expectations for a steep loss of Iranian crude from market as U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic weigh.
The wobble in oil prices did little to knock them off course for a weekly rise following sharp gains a day earlier on the back of falling domestic crude inventories. seen earlier this week.
Inventories of U.S. crude fell by 2.057 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 14, missing expectations for a draw of 2.74 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
Falling crude imports and rising exports contributed to the draw in crude inventories. The diverging prices between WTI crude and Brent crude benchmarks has stoked up foreign demand for U.S. crude, boosting exports.
Oil-market observers will likely turn to the Baker Hughes rig count data Friday for ongoing signs of expanding U.S. output, which rose to 11.0 million barrels a day last week.
The report comes ahead of key weekend meeting in Algiers between OPEC and Russia.