Kuwait expects oil prices to remain below $72 per barrel in the near term, Tareq Al-Roumi, the Oil Minister of one of OPEC’s top producers, said on Thursday.
Brent crude prices were trading at around $67 per barrel early on Thursday.
Kuwait, as well as OPEC, are monitoring the market and all statements coming from U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration, the minister added.
“Through OPEC, we are monitoring the market in terms of supply and demand, and we are monitoring the U.S. President’s statements,” Al-Roumi told Reuters.
Two of President Trump’s recent statements and moves have the potential to become big drivers of the oil market soon, in either direction.
On Wednesday, President Trump claimed “great progress” was made during “a highly productive meeting” of his special envoy Steve Witkoff with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But at the same time, President Trump signed an executive order enacting an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, explicitly targeting India’s ongoing imports of Russian crude oil. This order increases the total tariff rate on Indian exports to the United States to 50%, the highest level for any country under current U.S. policy.
The 50% tariff will take effect 21 days after August 6.
Kuwait and OPEC are monitoring all these developments, said the Kuwaiti oil minister. According to Kuwait, the oil market is healthy and demand is rising at a “moderate pace.”
Separately, Shaikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, the CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), also spoke to Reuters and other reporters and said that Kuwait is currently producing 2.548 million barrels per day (bpd), per the latest OPEC+ quota.
“We have a production capacity that far exceeds that, and we use this capacity when necessary,” Kuwait Petroleum’s top executive said.
OPEC+ will complete the unwinding of its largest production cut next month after agreeing this weekend to boost output by 547,000 bpd in September.
The last remaining layer of production cuts of 1.66 million bpd still stands, until late 2026, unless OPEC+ decides the market warrants the additional supply sooner than that.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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