- WTI price steadies near $60.60 in Thursday’s early European session.
- Easing geopolitical tensions after Trump stepped back from tariff threats against European nations supports the WTI price.
- IEA maintained its bearish outlook for the oil market, projecting that supply will significantly exceed demand this year.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, is trading around $60.60 during the early European trading hours on Thursday. The WTI price holds steady amid cooling geopolitical tensions over Greenland and oversupply concerns.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would hold back from imposing tariffs on Europe over Greenland, saying the framework of a potential deal had been reached. His comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos helped revive global risk appetite, as investors took them as a sign of easing geopolitical and trade tensions. This, in turn, could provide some support to the WTI price in the near term.
Additionally, signals of supply disruptions in Kazakhstan might contribute to the WTI’s upside. Kazakh oil producer Tengizchevroil, led by Chevron, said that it had temporarily halted production at the Tengiz and Korolev oilfields after two fires at power generators, per Bloomberg.
On the other hand, oversupply concerns might weigh on the black gold. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reiterated its forecast that global oil supply will significantly exceed demand this year. US crude inventories also reportedly rose last week by about 3 million barrels.
“We saw some interest in buying Brent and WTI crude following Trump’s Davos speech and social-media posts,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group. Still, “there is little conviction to chase the move aggressively. The supply backdrop continues to act as an overhang, limiting upside follow-through,” he added.
(This story was corrected on January 22 at 07:15 GMT to say, in the second paragraph, that Trump said he wouldn’t impose tariffs on certain European countries after reaching a deal over Greenland, not the Greenback.)
