Oil up as Trump talks to Saudi, Russia to end price war

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Crude oil prices were up on Thursday with hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump talking to his Saudi and Russian counterpart would end the price war between Riyadh and Moscow.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $23.99 per barrel at 0611 GMT for a 7.7% increase after closing Wednesday at $22.27 a barrel.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $21.48 per barrel at the same time for a 2.2% gain after ending the previous day at $21.0.2 a barrel.

U.S. President Trump said Wednesday he held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, adding that he believes the two countries would agree to end their price war in "a few days."

"I have confidence in both that they'll be able to work it out," Trump said at a White House briefing.

During the OPEC+ conference in Vienna, Austria on March 6, Saudi Arabia and Russia failed to make deeper cuts into the group's oil production levels to mitigate the adverse impact of coronavirus on weakening global oil demand.

After the conference both countries announced the following week that they would boost up their crude oil output starting from April, triggering a war for greater market share, but this sent crude prices to their lowest levels since 2002.

Moscow and Riyadh cut their oil production levels three times since December 2016 during their OPEC+ alliance, to balance the global oil market against rising U.S. shale oil production and support crude prices.