Trump hopes OPEC will refrain from oil production cuts

By Ovunc Kutlu

WASHINGTON (AA) - U.S. President Donald Trump expressed hope on Monday that OPEC and the cartel's heavyweight Saudi Arabia would refrain from production cuts, in an effort to keep crude oil prices low in the global market.

"Hopefully, Saudi Arabia and OPEC will not be cutting oil production. Oil prices should be much lower based on supply!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

In addition to the U.S. granting waivers to eight major importing nations of Iranian crude, rising oil production worldwide has also created fears of oversupply in the global market, and has pushed crude prices into the bear market territory.

International benchmark Brent crude lost around 19 percent since the beginning of October, hitting as low as $68.88 per barrel on Monday -- its lowest level since April 10, according to official data.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell on 11 out of the past 12 days to plummet 13 percent since Oct. 26. WTI reached as low as $58.69 a barrel on Monday, marking its lowest level since Feb. 14.

The U.S.' crude oil production climbed to a fresh record high of 11.6 million barrels per day (bpd) for the week ending Nov. 2, according to the country's Energy Information Administration.

With this result, the U.S. surpassed Russia, which produced 11.36 million bpd of crude on average so far this month, and climbed to the top spot among crude oil producing nations.

Meanwhile, the world's biggest crude exporter Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that it would trim its December exports by 500,000 bpd, and signaled that OPEC may cut more output in the near future to raise prices, however Russia was not partial to this plan.