Oil Jumps as Trump Threatens India for Buying Russian Crude
Oil prices jumped to a six-week high in the global commodity market as the U.S. administration revealed plan to sanction India for importing Russian crude. President Donald Trump threatened to penalize India for buying Russian crude, noting that his administration tightened a crackdown on supplies from Iran.
The US will impose 25% tariffs on goods imported from India “plus an unspecified penalty” for buying Russian oil and weapons, Trump has said. In 2024, the US had a trade deficit of $45.8 billion with India.
Posting on his Truth Social platform, he said the measures would take effect from 1 August, the US deadline for a trade deal. He described India as a friend whose “tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the world.”
He also criticized India’s purchases of Russian military equipment and energy “when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE.” India said it was committed to “concluding a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial bilateral trade agreement.”
Brent traded near $73 a barrel and is up almost 7% so far this week, while West Texas Intermediate was below $70. US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.8% during the week ending July 25, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) late Wednesday.
Inventories rose by around 7.7 million barrels to 426.7 million barrels, against the market expectation of a 2.3 million-barrel draw. Strategic petroleum reserves, which are excluded from commercial crude stocks, also increased by 200,000 barrels to 402.7 million barrels, the data revealed.
Over the same period, gasoline inventories decreased by approximately 2.7 million barrels to 228.4 million barrels. EIA data showed that US crude oil production increased by 41,000 barrels per day (bpd) to about 13.31 million bpd during the week ending July 25.
US crude oil imports rose by 159,000 bpd to approximately 6.14 million bpd, while exports fell by 1.16 million bpd to around 2.7 million bpd over the same period. In the Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released on July 8, the EIA projected that crude oil output in the country would average 13.37 million bpd in 2025. #Oil Jumps as Trump Threatens India for Buying Russian Crude Ghana Cuts Interest Rate by 3% as Inflation Pressures Ease
