The fallout from the drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities seems to be spreading wider, as US President Donald Trump indicated that he has asked the US Treasury Secretary to “substantially increase” sanctions on Iran in a tweet posted a few minutes ago, .
“I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase sanctions on the country of Iran!” according to the US President’s Twitter handle.
This announcement was made after several US officials, including President Trump himself, have pointed fingers at Iran as being directly behind the drone attacks on the facilities of the state-owned Saudi oil company, Saudi Aramco. The attacks sent WTI crude oil prices soaring 12%. However, prices have since cooled after the Saudi oil minister assured of speedy recovery of production.
WTI crude oil prices have been relatively unmoved by the tweet, and continue to trade at $58.51, just around the 50% Fibonacci retracement from the swing high of April 23 to the swing low of August 7.
The EIA Crude Oil Inventories report is being awaited anytime from now, with the market consensus of a stockpile deficit of 2.1million barrels.