- Iran Sees Oil Price Hitting $100 Amid Supply Disruptions
Oil will soon cost $100 per barrel due to supply disruptions caused by the United States President, Donald Trump, Iran’s representative at the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Hossein Ardebili, has said.
The international oil benchmark, Brent crude, was trading around $77.49 per barrel as of 8:20pm Nigerian time on Thursday.
Ardebili, according to Reuters, warned that expectations that Saudi Arabia and Russia would help bring down prices were in vain.
Trump again accused the OPEC of driving fuel prices higher on Wednesday, and urged US allies such as Saudi Arabia, to pump more if they wanted Washington to continue protecting them against their top foe, Iran.
Iran, OPEC’s third-largest producer, is facing US sanctions on its oil exports that are prompting some buyers to cut purchases.
Ardebili told Reuters that Trump “should have expected” when blocking Iran’s access to the global markets that it would end up as “hostage (to) Saudi Arabia and Russia,” who he said had little vested interest in bringing down prices.
“The responsibility of paying unnecessary prices for oil by all consumers of the whole world, especially in US gas stations, is solely upon your (Trump’s) shoulders and the price of over $100 per barrel is yet to come,” he said.
The US President has lashed out at OPEC in recent weeks. Rising gasoline prices could create a political headache for Trump before November mid-term congressional elections by offsetting Republican claims that his tax cuts and rollbacks of federal regulations have helped boost the US economy.
In a tweet on Saturday, Trump said Saudi Arabia had agreed to increase oil output by up to two million barrels, an assertion the White House rowed back on in a subsequent statement.
The leader of Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest member, has assured Trump that the kingdom can raise oil production if needed, and that the country has two million barrels per day of spare capacity that could be deployed to help cool oil prices to compensate for falling output in Venezuela and Iran.
Trump has been complaining about OPEC at the same time that Washington is piling pressure on its European allies to stop buying Iranian oil.
Iran has threatened to block oil exports through a key Gulf waterway in retaliation against any hostile US action.
“We are neighbours and will remain so; we know we can and we must live together. No one wants you (Trump) to protect anybody…You are fighting with everybody, Sir, since you came to office,” Ardebili said.
Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell’s boss has said it will be “foolhardy” for the oil and gas producer to set hard targets to reduce carbon emissions as it risked exposing the energy giant to legal challenges.
The energy industry has struggled in recent years to find a clear path to secure its role as the world shifts from fossil fuels in order to meet the 2015 Paris climate agreement goals.
The Chief Executive Officer, Shell, Ben van Beurden, set out ambitions last year to halve its carbon emissions by 2050, far exceeding rivals. But the Dutch CEO resisted calls by activists and some investors to set binding targets.
“It would be somewhat foolhardy to put ourselves in a legal bind by saying these are the targets we will adopt,” van Beurden said at a company event, according to Reuters.
