Oil prices are under pressure as a diplomatic push by President Donald Trump could remove sanctions on Russian and create an off ramp for Iranian sanction’s brokered by none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin and enhance global supplies.
Reuters reported earlier this week that the White House has asked the State and Treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be used by U.S. officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration’s broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said. So, it’s not just drill baby drill to bring down prices but also diplomacy that is keeping the crude oil price in check.
The US just cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine in a move that shows the White House’s disgust with Ukraine President Zelensky. This comes after Newsweek reported that, “The White House is pushing back after a Reuters report on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration and Ukraine intend to sign the highly scrutinized minerals deal. Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich, the network’s senior White House correspondent, reported on X, formerly Twitter, that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News, “There is no signing planned.”
Also, on Tuesday, multiple sources told CBS News that a deal is not finalized. The network also reported that Trump is now holding out for a “bigger, better deal.” Reuters reported that it spoke to four sources familiar with the matter.
While the market looks weak on the downside, many people are talking about the fact that OPEC’s production increases may signal that the market is very tight if you get back to supply and demand. The oil market still has an inventory below average, and this could be the final washout before the seasonal rally begins.
This time, as global petroleum demand hit a record high, ERG Energy, a Houston-based power generation giant, plans to build four new natural gas power plants to supply data centers in Texas and elsewhere, according to a Wednesday announcement.
This comes as Maureen Malik at Bloomberg wrote that the demand for the Texas power grid is expected to expand so immensely that it would take the equivalent of adding 30 nuclear plants’ worth of electricity by 2030 to meet the needs. That’s according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the grid. The forecast is based on the addition of new data centers needed to power artificial intelligence. And it’s raising concerns about whether infrastructure in the state will be able to expand fast enough — and at what cost.