Trump’s OPEC Tweets Have Putin Preparing for Oil Talks - Bloomberg

Trump’s OPEC Tweets Have Putin Preparing for Oil Talks - Bloomberg:

When Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Donald Trump next week, he’ll armed to discuss oil production following the U.S. leader’s series of tweets targeting OPEC, according to people familiar with preparations for the summit.

The Kremlin sees Trump as likely to raise the issue of adding crude supplies to the market in a bid to lower gasoline prices before the U.S. elections in November, according to one of the people. While Putin’s spokesman said last week that oil isn’t at the top of the list for the July 16 summit in Helsinki, officials are preparing extensive briefing notes for Putin, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Crude prices have jumped about 14 percent since April on supply concerns following Trump’s promised renewal of sanctions against Iran and outages at fields in Libya and Venezuela. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners in production cuts, including Russia, have agreed to boost output to alleviate tightness, but concerns remain that it won’t be enough.