Investing.com– Oil prices fell sharply in Asian trade on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his demands that the OPEC lower crude prices, while his imposition of tariffs on Colombia also spooked markets.
Oil markets were also dented by weak purchasing managers index data from top importer China, which showed local business activity remained under pressure.
Prices were nursing steep losses from last week after Trump declared a national emergency and called for a sharp increase in U.S. energy production, while also calling on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to bring down crude prices.
expiring in March sank 1.2% to $77.59 a barrel, while fell 1.2% to $73.76 a barrel by 20:48 ET (01:48 GMT).
Trump imposes tariffs on Colombia, calls for lower oil prices
Trump imposed 25% import duties on all Colombian goods after Bogota did not allow two U.S. military planes carrying migrants to land in the country.
The move ramped up concerns that Trump could make good on his threat to impose trade tariffs against other major economies, including Canada, Mexico, and China.
The U.S. is Colombia’s biggest export destination, especially for its oil, although its crude exports make up only a fraction of overall U.S. oil consumption.
The U.S. President also reiterated his call for OPEC to lower oil prices, claiming that lower oil prices would hurt Russia’s revenue streams and stop the Russia-Ukraine war.
The OPEC has plans in place to begin slightly increasing production from April, as it begins scaling back output cuts imposed over the past two years. These curbs provided only fleeting support to prices.
The outgoing Biden administration had also imposed stricter sanctions on Russia’s oil industry, although this was expected to have limited impact on Russia’s oil revenues, given the country’s strong buyer pool in Asia.
Weak China PMI weighs on crude
Oil markets were also dented by weak PMI data from China, which showed unexpectedly shrank in January, while growth slowed sharply.
The readings showed local businesses only took limited support from recent stimulus measures from Beijing, and that China will likely have to do more to shore up growth.
The readings also came just days after Trump threatened to impose 10% tariffs on China, which could further pressure its economy and dent its appetite for crude.
China is the world’s biggest oil importer, but has been a major point of contention for crude markets amid steadily cooling economic growth over the past three years.
