Oil futures ended the week sharply lower as traders booked profits amid indications of a possible uptick in OPEC output.
ICE June Brent settled $2.20 lower at $72.15/b and NYMEX June WTI was down $1.91 at $63.30/b at market close.
"Spoke to Saudi Arabia and others about increasing oil flow. All are in agreement," US President Donald Trump tweeted Friday afternoon.
While the tweet came moments after the end of Friday's session, oil futures declines extended in after-market electronic trading.
The tweet came on the heels of earlier comments from Trump calling on OPEC to lower prices earlier Friday.
"The gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC. I said, 'You got to bring them down. You got to bring them down.' And gasoline is coming down. We're doing great," Trump told reporters Friday morning.
NYMEX May RBOB settled down 3.15 cents at $2.1006/gal and May ULSD was 4.69 cents lower at $2.0512/gal at market close.
The White House said on April 22 that Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, would work with the US to fill any supply gap stemming from the May 2 expiry of Iran sanctions waivers. Ending the waivers would take Iranian crude exports to zero, potentially removing 1.33 million b/d of Iranian exports, according to S&P Global Platts estimates.
But so far Saudi Arabia has yet to publicly commit to higher production levels.
Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih on Wednesday said the market is "well supplied" and that Riyadh would only boost supplies according to customer requests.
"We will be responsive, and we think there will be an uptick in real demand but certainly we are not going to be pre-emptive and increase production," Falih said, according to news reports.
Meanwhile there have been signs of some pushback from wavier recipients to the White House's decision.
China has indicated it may continue to import medium and heavy crude from Iran even after their waiver expires next week. Beijing has called its oil trade with Iran lawful, formally criticizing the Trump administration's decision to allow waivers to expire and indicating that oil flows may continue in spite of sanctions.
China's crude oil imports from Iran hit a seven-month high in March of 2.3 million mt, or 543,367 b/d, latest data from the General Administration of Customs showed Friday.
The Trump administration has publicly given little indication that it will allow China to import any Iranian crude after the wavier expiration without facing full sanctions enforcement.
Oil futures were already under pressure overnight as traders looked to book profits after crude notched six-month highs in the wake of the White House waiver announcement, analysts said. WTI traded up to $66.60/b intraday April 23, before a 5.48 million barrel build in US crude stocks deflated the rally. Brent prices peaked Thursday, topping $75/b on an intraday basis for the first time since October.
