Oil turns lower after Trump says he’ll ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring the price down

Crude oil futures fell Thursday after President Donald Trump urged Saudi Arabia and OPEC to cut their prices.

U.S. crude oil fell 82 cents, or 1.09%, to close at $74.62 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent dropped 71 cents, or 0.9%, to close at $78.29 per barrel. Oil was higher on the session before Trump began speaking.

Trump accused the Saudis and OPEC of fueling the war in Ukraine through high oil prices, claiming the fighting would end if they allowed global crude prices to fall. Russia is one of the largest oil exporters in the world and the revenues from those sales support its war.

“I’m also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil,” Trump said in a virtual address to the World Economic Forum. “If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately.”

“They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent, for what’s taking place,” Trump said of the Saudis and OPEC.

The Saudis and Russia coordinate to influence global prices through the group OPEC+. They and six other members of the group have been holding 2.2 million barrels per day off the global market to keep prices from falling too much. Oil prices faced downward pressure last year due to abundant production in the U.S. and slowing demand in China.

OPEC+ decided in December to extend its production cuts through at least March 2025 before phasing them out over the course of a year.