By Zhang Mengying
Investing.com – Oil was down on Wednesday morning in Asia as U.S. President Joe Biden is set to push for U.S. fuel cost cuts.
Brent oil futures slid 3.03% to $111.18 by 12:40 a.m. ET (0440 GMT) and crude oil WTI futures dived 3.37% to $105.83.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected on Wednesday to call on Congress to temporarily suspend a federal tax on gasoline to bring down soaring fuel prices and alleviate the pressure on consumers.
“Even oil traders acknowledged that higher oil prices hence higher gasoline prices would lead to a more aggressive tag team onslaught from the (U.S.) Fed pushing rates higher and the Biden administration getting increasingly more creative on the political and fiscal front to tame the energy inflation beast,” SPI Asset Management managing partner Stephen Innes told Reuters.
Seven oil companies are set to meet Biden on Thursday, under pressure from the White House to bring down fuel prices.
However, energy company Chevron’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Wirth said on Tuesday that criticizing the oil industry was not the way to lower fuel prices.
“These actions are not beneficial to meeting the challenges we face,” Wirth said in a letter to Biden.
Elsewhere, since European oil sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine haven’t taken effect, the supply is set to get tighter.
“The market is still coming to terms with the increasing disruption to Russian oil. European sanctions have yet to kick in,” ANZ Research analysts said in a note.