By Colleen Howe
BEIJING (Reuters) -Oil prices slipped in Asian trading on Tuesday after President Donald Trump announced a plan to boost U.S. oil and gas production and held off on applying new tariffs.
Brent crude futures dipped 11 cents, or 0.14%, to $80.04 per barrel by 0156 GMT.
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The most actively traded West Texas Intermediate crude March contract fell by 67 cents to $76.72 a barrel from Friday’s close. There was no settlement in the U.S. market for Jan. 20 due to a public holiday. The February contract expires on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump announced a plan to boost U.S. oil and gas production and said he was thinking of imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico from Feb. 1 rather than immediately, which helped push oil prices down.
But down the track, tariffs on Canadian crude could drive the market higher.
Almost all of Canada’s oil exports go to the U.S. and typically sell at a discount to WTI. “U.S. sanctions therefore raise the risk of higher costs for most of Canada’s oil exports,” Commonwealth Bank analyst Vivek Dhar said in a note.
Trump laid out a sweeping plan to accelerate oil, gas and power permitting in order to maximise already record high U.S. energy production.
While he did not impose any sweeping new trade measures right away, he told federal agencies to investigate unfair trade practices by other countries.
Trump also said the U.S. would “probably” stop buying oil from Venezuela. The U.S. is the number-two buyer of Venezuelan oil after China.
He additionally promised to refill strategic reserves, a move that could be bullish for oil prices by boosting demand for U.S. crude oil.
(Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Jamie Freed and Sonali Paul)
