Oil Rally Stalls as Saudi Barrels Seen Offsetting Iran Sanctions - Bloomberg

Oil Rally Stalls as Saudi Barrels Seen Offsetting Iran Sanctions - Bloomberg:

Crude oil slipped in New York as investors weighed a potential production surge from Saudi Arabia and Russia against concern that sanctions against Iran will trigger a global supply crunch.

West Texas Intermediate crude advanced as much as 1.1 percent on Monday before pulling back. While South Korea has become the first of Iran’s top-three oil customers to fulfill a U.S. demand that buyers cut imports to zero, speculation that Saudi Arabia and Russia will fill in any supply gaps is keeping prices in check. A trade war between U.S. and China has also pressured the market lower.

Investors will be watching to see if “the Russians and the Saudis continue to put more oil on the market. That will basically negate some of the worries about tightening supply,” said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy. Yet, Trump’s fresh threats of tariffs don’t really “sit well with the demand side of the market.”