President Trump is set to meet oil company executives at the White House on Tuesday to discuss lowering gasoline prices, as Republicans sharpen their affordability message ahead of the midterms. The talks come as analysts question Trump's plan to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with Venezuelan crude, while WTI and Brent both rose more than 2% on Monday.
Trump meets oil execs as midterms near
President Donald Trump is expected to meet with executives from oil refiners at the White House on Tuesday, and the discussion will focus in part on reducing gasoline prices, according to multiple published reports. According to Chris Krueger, an analyst and managing director at TD Cowen's Washington Research Group: "discuss options on lower gasoline prices".
The meeting looks like part of an ongoing effort by Trump administration officials and other Republican policymakers to address voters' affordability concerns ahead of this year's midterm elections, now two months away. Democrats have an 89% chance of ending Republican control of the House, along with a 51% likelihood of flipping the Senate, according to prediction market Polymarket. Exxon Mobil, which faced criticism from Trump after a prior White House meeting in January, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Venezuela deal raises doubts on SPR
The Trump administration has been tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help push down gasoline prices, which climbed this year due to disruptions in the Middle East since Trump launched his war on Iran six months ago. On Sunday, Trump said in a social-media post that he would use Venezuelan crude oil to fill up the SPR, adding that the process would begin very shortly. That's after the president announced a deal with Venezuela late Friday to help develop 17 of the country's oil fields containing 65 billion barrels of proven reserves.
But analysts have expressed doubts about relying on heavy Venezuelan crude for the SPR, which is set up largely to store light, sweet crude. UBS strategists said the mechanism for using future Venezuelan output to replenish the reserve is not yet clear, given differences in crude quality and storage requirements. UBS called the U.S.-Venezuela deal strategically significant but said it's unlikely to change the near-term oil market outlook, since the market's dominant driver remains disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz — and Venezuelan production gains will take years to materialize.
Oil futures climb on Iran tensions
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate and London-traded Brent crude futures each rose more than 2% on Monday. The two benchmarks are poised to end August with gains of 1% and 3%, respectively.
Analysts attributed Monday's advance to the U.S. and Iran exchanging fire for the first time in a month. Meanwhile, the average national price for gasoline stands at about $4.08 per gallon, up from $3.19 a year ago, according to AAA data.
Source: MarketWatch
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