Oil prices crumble as Saudi Arabia throws in the towel on restricting supply

c/worldnews · u/geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml · 174 points

Oil prices continued their free fall on Friday as the market absorbed a double whammy of shocks after US President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs and the Opec+ alliance decided to massively increase crude production.

The price of Brent, the international benchmark, has dropped more than 11 percent in two days, plunging from $74 per barrel at the beginning of this week to about $66 per barrel. The drop has put crude prices at their lowest levels since 2021.

The sell-off shows how Trump’s trade war is already unleashing secondary effects on the Middle East.

Comments

u/DJDarren@sopuli.xyz · 4 points

This ain't my first rodeo, Chief.

u/Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca · 14 points

.....4.....5....6.....7.....8.....

u/ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org · 3 points

oh my sweet summer child

u/qprimed@lemmy.ml · 3 points

still hopeful that, if trumps idiocy does not directly blow us all to hell, an economic downturn may give us another COVID style environmental breather. silver linings and all that.

u/geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml · 19 points

It was useful against global warming

u/geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml · 17 points

Maybe they are trying to save Trump and salvage the world economy line from going through the floor. Because another 2008 would be very bad for Gulf business.

u/avidamoeba@lemmy.ca · 2 points

Trump may have asked for this. I guess we'll know how the relationship is going if they reduce production in the future. 😂

u/qprimed@lemmy.ml · 1 points

old info? have things flipped?

u/qprimed@lemmy.ml · 2 points

elbows up, my friend. elbows up!

u/qprimed@lemmy.ml · 3 points

we seem to like it dirty.

>[...]our refineries were designed to process oil coming from Mexico and Venezuela. “And a lot of that tends to be relatively heavy and relatively high in sulfur,”

u/Bloomcole@lemmy.ml · 3 points

Ah yes, oil rich country.

What a coincidence they have all these coup attempts there.

u/avidamoeba@lemmy.ca · 2 points

Hey buddy, we're not annexed yet!

u/lumony@lemmings.world · 2 points

Venezuela has the "dirtiest oil in the world."

u/ryannathans@aussie.zone · 2 points

Holy shit

u/GaMEChld@lemmy.world · 8 points

We can't even refine our own oil. We import sweet crude to our refineries and export sour crude to international refineries.

u/qprimed@lemmy.ml · 4 points

based on proven reserves it looks like venezuela is gonna get canada'd harder than usual.

u/ryannathans@aussie.zone · 2 points

Depleting middle east oil reserves faster so US oil ultimately gains value in the long term

u/arotrios@lemmy.world · 11 points

Agreed - actually came here to say this. The Saudis have been pretty blatant in how they time their pricing manipulation to American politics and economic trends. Like how oil prices stayed high even after COVID killed demand while Biden was in office, or how they flooded the market to try and kill the American fracking industry after Trump was elected the first time.

u/qprimed@lemmy.ml · 9 points

good observation. wonder how texas and louisiana "drill baby drillers" are doin' right now...

u/avidamoeba@lemmy.ca · 19 points

The drop should dampen some of the inflationary effects of the tariffs. MBS is essentially helping Trump in this one.

u/ryannathans@aussie.zone · 3 points

Everything requiring energy or fuel to produce or transport should get cheaper

u/pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · 44 points

I wouldn't really call it a crumble. It was this low this past March around the same time and it dropped this low in September last year. Also, oil is exempt from the tariffs, but the people using the oil is probably going to lower too. I think this is a weird headline.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/oil-price?op=1

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/04/trump-exempts-big-oil-donors-from-tariffs

u/CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 23 points

Wow, OPEC might actually be falling apart, going by that.

u/TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works · 17 points

Trumpers gonna be like "See daddy knows best cause oil is cheaper" *eye roll*

u/DJDarren@sopuli.xyz · 8 points

Cool. Lower prices at the pump in 5... 4... 3......

u/lumony@lemmings.world · 8 points

Good!

Artificial scarcity was always dumb as fuck.

Sad watching useful idiots living vicariously through business leaders.

u/exonode@lemm.ee · 7 points

That's gonna really piss off Russia.

u/FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world · 6 points

Hopefully the increase in drilling leads to Mother Earth washing us all away in a massive flood. Poke enough and it might poke back..