Oil Prices Flat As OPEC+ Starts Easing Production Cuts

Oil prices inched down slightly on Tuesday morning as OPEC+ begins adding supply from April 1, amid U.S. threats of secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian and Iranian oil and persistent concerns about U.S. tariffs weakening economic growth.

As of 8:40 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, the front-month futures of the U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, were trading down 0.07% at $71.43.

Brent Crude, the international benchmark, was down by 0.08% at $74.65.

On Monday, oil jumped by $2 per barrel from Friday’s close – to a five-week high – after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened secondary sanctions on Russia’s energy industry if Washington and Moscow fail to seal a ceasefire deal for Ukraine.

“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump told NBC in an interview on Sunday.

In the same interview, President Trump also threatened Iran with bombings and sanctions if the two fail to reach an agreement on a new nuclear deal that would see Iran pledge not to build nuclear weapons.

By Tuesday, oil prices had eased from the five-week high as OPEC+ began unwinding the production cuts by adding about 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the group’s supply as of today.

The next key OPEC+ catalyst for oil prices would be Saturday’s meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of the group, which will review market developments and potentially recommend production levels for May. The alliance will have to decide whether to push forward with further easing of the cuts or pause the increase in supply.

Until then, oil prices will react to any geopolitical development—rise in case of more threats of secondary tariffs on oil buyers or fall if economic data disappoint and suggest that the trade and tariff wars are undermining growth.