Oil rebounds on Trump threats on Russian crude buyers

OIL prices climbed on Wednesday (06 August), rebounding from a five-week low the previous day, as traders focused on U.S. President Donald Trump threatening India with higher tariffs over its Russian crude purchases and a larger-than-expected U.S. crude draw.

AI Brief

Oil prices rebounded after falling for four straight sessions, supported by a drop in US crude inventories.
Trump's renewed tariff threats on India for buying Russian oil added pressure to global energy markets.
A US envoy is in Moscow ahead of a ceasefire deadline, adding geopolitical uncertainty to oil price movements.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 gained 90 cents, or 1.3%, to $68.54 a barrel by 0936 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was up 92 cents, or 1.4%, at $66.08 a barrel.

Both oil contracts fell by more than $1 on Tuesday to settle at their lowest in five weeks, marking a fourth session of losses.

Trump's renewed threats on Tuesday of higher tariffs on India for buying Russian energy supported the market. India, along with China, is a huge buyer of Russian oil.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Wednesday on a last-minute mission to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war, two days before the expiry of a deadline set by Trump for Russia to agree to peace or face new sanctions.

The market was also seeing some support from U.S. crude inventories falling last week, analysts said, as sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures said on Tuesday that stockpiles had fallen by 4.2 million barrels.

That compares with a Reuters poll estimate of a 600,000 barrels draw for the week to August 1.