Investing.com - Oil prices edged down on Tuesday morning in Asia on the news that the Trump administration would impose gradual sanctions on Iran to avoid a global spike in oil prices.
Crude Oil WTI Futures for December delivery inched down 0.29% to $62.92 a barrel at 11:13 PM ET (03:13 GMT) on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while London’s Intercontinental Exchange showed that Brent Oil Futures for January 2019 delivery went down 0.44% to $72.85 per barrel.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he intends to impose crude sanctions on Iran gradually, lifting concerns over tighter supply from Iran’s crude downfall.
“We have the toughest sanctions ever imposed, but on oil we want to go a little bit slower because I don’t want to drive (up) the oil prices in the world,” a Reuters’ report cited Trump.
On Monday, Washington re-imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil, banking and transports, with a view to halting Tehran’s nuclear programs. Trump vowed to pull Iran’s crude exports to zero previously.
The White House granted temporary oil import waivers to eight countries – China, India, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Japan, Taiwan and Turkey – allowing them to import oil from Iran for 180 days.
“More than 20 importing nations have zeroed out their imports of crude oil already, taking more than 1 million barrels of crude per day off the market. The regime to date since May has lost over $2.5 billion in oil revenue,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Reuters.
Crude shipments from Iran dived to about 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, down from 2.3 million bpd in June, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The world’s three top oil producers – the U.S., Russia and Saudi Arabia – are preparing to increase output. They jointly pumped over 33 million bpd in October, up 10 million bpd since the start of the decade.
The American Petroleum Institute and the Energy Information Administration are expected to release weekly oil data on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. OPEC and other oil producers are due to meet in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 11 to review their agreements on limiting production output.