Oil prices fell on Wednesday, shedding some of last session’s gains. Rising U.S. crude inventories and concerns about Libyan supplies weighed on prices, but the decline was limited by possible U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports.
Brent crude futures were down 18 cents, or 0.2%, at $77.31 a barrel by 0548 GMT, while WTI crude futures were down 15 cents, or 0.2%, at $73.62 a barrel.
While markets are struggling with demand-side pressures, supply-side relief is having an equal impact on oil prices.
Markets are under pressure from Trump’s plans to increase U.S. oil production and are awaiting more clarity on Trump’s energy policies.
Trump took office last week by issuing several executive orders to ease permitting for energy infrastructure and further boost oil and gas production.
U.S. crude and gasoline stocks rose last week, while distillate stocks fell, according to figures from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistics arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, will release its weekly data at 1530 GMT on Wednesday.
The resolution of supply concerns in Libya also contributed to the selling pressure.
Those fears eased after state-run National Oil Corp said on Tuesday that exports were proceeding normally after talks with protesters demanding a halt to loading at one of its major oil ports.
Trump’s announcement on Saturday that he planned to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico also added to the confusion over prices.
It remains unclear how the new tariffs could affect U.S. oil imports from those countries. Canada supplied 3.9 million barrels of oil per day to the United States in 2023, about half of its total imports for the year, while Mexico supplied 733,000 barrels of oil per day.
Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ ministers held talks ahead of a meeting of OPEC+ oil-producing countries next week after Trump called for lower prices, according to official statements and sources.
Oil benchmarks fell to multi-week lows early this week as news of surging interest in Chinese startup DeepSeek’s low-cost artificial intelligence (AI) model prompted concerns over energy demand to power data centers, rattling the overall energy sector, while weak economic data from China further soured the demand outlook.
Technology stocks regained ground on Tuesday, a day after the DeepSeek rattled markets.
