DTN Oil Update
Oil Futures Climb on a Secondary Tariff on Venezuela
HOUSTON (DTN) -- Oil futures continued their upward trend on Tuesday, driven by the announcement of a secondary tariff that the Trump administration plans to impose on imports from countries buying oil and gas from Venezuela.
Monday, March 24, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on any country that purchases oil and gas from Venezuela, set to take effect on April 2, accusing the South American country of sending Tren de Aragua gang members to the U.S.
The announcement set a bullish tone in the oil futures market, placing the front-month NYMEX West Texas Intermediate futures contract for May delivery at $69, the highest level recorded since late February.
Last week, the Trump administration also imposed stricter sanctions on Iranian oil trade targeting a Chinese teapot refinery, 12 entities, one individual and eight vessels, which were shipping millions of barrels of oil produced by Iran to China.
These sanctions, in addition to the one imposed on Russian oil sales by the Biden administration in 2024, are expected to limit global supplies and put pressure on oil prices.
Meanwhile, market participants await the announcement of new reciprocal trade tariffs to be imposed by the U.S. government on April 2 marks on China, Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, all of which have imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products.
The front-month NYMEX WTI futures contract rose by $0.52 to $69.63 bbl, while the ICE Brent futures contract for May delivery increased by $0.49 $73.43 bbl. April RBOB futures contract climbed by $0.0111 to $2.2177 gallon and April ULSD futures increased by $0.0214 to $2.2785 gallon.
The U.S. Dollar Index dropped by 0.28% to 103.66 against a basket of foreign currencies.
