HOUSTON: Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday as investors focused on developments on US President Donald Trump’s tighter deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine and his tariff threats to countries that trade its oil. The most active Brent crude futures were up 40 cents or about 0.6%, to $72.09 a barrel by 11:28 a.m. ET (1528 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate crude was up 76 cents at $69.97 with investors largely shrugging off mixed US data on crude and fuel inventories. The Brent crude September contract that expires on Wednesday was up 37 cents at $72.88.
Both contracts had fallen nearly 1% earlier in the day. Trump had said on Tuesday that he would start imposing measures on Russia, such as secondary tariffs of 100% on trading partners, if it did not make progress on ending the Ukraine war within 10 to 12 days, moving up from an earlier 50-day deadline.
He imposed a 25% tariff on goods imported from India starting August 1, along with an unspecified penalty for buying Russian weapons and oil, potentially straining relations with the world’s most populous democracy.
The United States also warned China, the largest buyer of Russian oil, that it could face huge tariffs if it kept buying. JP Morgan analysts wrote that while China was unlikely to comply with US sanctions, India has signalled it would do so, which could affect 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil exports.
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