Crude prices accelerated on Tuesday after reports that the US is pushing big oil consumer nations to cut their imports from Iran following the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May.
A state department official said the US will not offer any waivers to traditional buyers of the country’s oil, after it reimposed sanctions on Iran’s energy sector and exports, which are due to kick in later this year.
US representatives are set to travel to India and China to persuade them to “go to zero”, Reuters and Bloomberg reported. This would be a change from previous years when Iran was under a previous round of sanctions and special allowances were made.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose by 1.40 dollars a barrel to 76.14 dollars, while West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, increased by 2.20 dollars a barrel to 70.27 dollars. The price moves came despite reports that Saudi Arabia would ramp up output.
The kingdom and Russia said on Saturday global producers would increase output by 1million barrel per day in response to concerns from consumer countries — namely the US — that had protested the rise in crude prices above 80 dollars a barrel last month.
Energy analysts have been briefed by the kingdom to expect its domestic output to increase to at least 10.6 million barrel per day in the coming months, with Bloomberg reporting that production could surge to 10.8 million per day in July alone. Saudi Arabia pumped around 10 million per day in May.
