futures traded higher on Thursday morning after US President Donald Trump warned that US forces would ‘target Iran very hard’ and could bring the country back to ‘the stone ages’.
At 9.16 am on Thursday, June Brent oil futures were at $106.15, up by 4.93 per cent, and May crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $104.23, up by 4.11 per cent. April crude oil futures were trading at ₹9780 on during the initial hour of trading on Thursday against the previous close of ₹9253, up by 5.70 per cent, and May futures were trading at ₹9023 against the previous close of ₹8539, up by 5.67 per cent.
In a televised speech, Trump said, “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ death. They’re all dead. The new group is less radical and much more reasonable. Yet if during this period of time no deal is made, we have our eyes on key targets. If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously. We have not hit their oil, even though that’s the easiest target of all, because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding. But we could hit it and it would be gone. And there’s not a thing they could do about it.”
Taking a dig at the Western nations for not supporting him in this war, he said, “So to those countries that can’t get fuel, many of which refuse to get involved in the decapitation of Iran — we had to do it ourselves — I have a suggestion. No. 1, buy oil from the United States of America. We have plenty. We have so much. And No. 2, build up some delayed courage. Should have done it before. Should have done it with us as we asked. Go to the straight and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done, so it should be easy.”
He said that the core strategic objectives of Operation Epic Fury are nearing completion.
Meanwhile, petroleum status report by the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) showed an increase in US crude oil inventories for the week ending March 27.
According to EIA, US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 5.5 million barrels for the week ending March 27. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 0.6 million barrels from last week, and distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.1 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied in the US over the last four-week period averaged 20.9 million barrels per day. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels per day, and distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4 million barrels per day over the past four weeks.