President Trump took credit on Wednesday for driving down oil prices both before and after sanctions on Iran’s oil exports kicked in on Monday.
“That’s because of me,” Trump said of the low prices. “If you look at oil prices they’ve come down very substantially over the last couple of months.”
Nevertheless, the Energy Department reported on Tuesday that average oil prices shot up by $2 since September, to $81 per barrel.
Yet, despite the increase in monthly average prices, the daily spot price declined from $85 per barrel on Oct. 1 to $75 per barrel on Oct. 31, according to the Energy Information Administration’s new monthly energy outlook.
Trump also said he issued the sanctions waivers on Monday to keep the price of oil from going up to $100 per barrel, while reiterating his animosity toward the OPEC oil cartel for increasing prices.
The waivers would allow countries to continue to buy oil from Iran while not violating the U.S.’ newly-imposed restrictions.
“I did it because I don’t want to drive oil prices up to $100 per barrel, because I’m driving them down,” he said at a White House press conference.
Oil prices are going up “because you have a monopoly called OPEC. And I don’t like that monopoly,” Trump added.
The Energy Information Administration expects international oil spot prices to average $72 per barrel in 2019. West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices will average around $7 lower than international prices next year. West Texas is the best price indicator for domestic oil prices.
