President Trump complained Wednesday that oil prices are too high and blamed the spike on OPEC, the group of 14 nations that controls a major portion of the world’s supply of crude petroleum. “Oil prices are too high, OPEC is at it again. Not good!” the president tweeted even as prices fell amid the expectation that the cartel may soon relax its output cuts.
Oil prices have risen about 60 percent since last year after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil producers, including Russia, began reducing output to cut excess supply, Reuters reported. That move took crude from about $50 a barrel in late 2016 to more than $70 this year. OPEC members include Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
But the International Energy Agency said it believes the prices are unlikely to rise as sharply as they have in the past few months, CNBC reported. The president’s tweet comes ahead of a two-day meeting that OPEC and other producers will attend beginning June 22 in Vienna to discuss future policy on output.
In April, Saudi Energy Minister Khaled al-Faleh said the global market has the capacity to absorb higher oil prices, according to Agence France-Presse — a remark that drew Trump’s wrath. “With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!” Trump tweeted on April 20.
Oil prices across the country have crept up toward $3 a gallon as the US hits its peak summer travel season — still less than the $4 a gallon in 2008 during the 2007-2009 Great Recession, according to Reuters.
