Iran asks Trump to stop tweeting about oil - because it's driving prices up
- A senior Iranian official has asked US President Donald Trump to refrain from tweeting about oil as he believes the tweets are driving up the price of the commodity.
- "Please stop it, otherwise it will go even higher!" Iran's OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said in a statement, according to the country's Shana news agency.
- Ardebili also claimed that Trump's words are "discrediting" OPEC.
- On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that OPEC must "REDUCE PRICING NOW!"
- Oil prices have risen to multi-year highs of around $78 per barrel in recent days.
- You can follow prices on Markets Insider.
A senior Iranian official has asked US President Donald Trump to refrain from tweeting about oil as he believes the messages are driving up the price of the commodity.
"Please stop it, otherwise it will go even higher!" Iran's OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said in a statement, according to the country's Shana news agency.
In recent days, Trump has tweeted several times about global oil markets, complaining that prices are currently too high, and insisting that major producers within OPEC increase production in order to bring those prices down.
"The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up & they are doing little to help. If anything, they are driving prices higher as the United States defends many of their members for very little $'s. This must be a two way street. REDUCE PRICING NOW!" - he tweeted on Wednesday, as Americans celebrated the Fourth of July holiday.
"OPEC has not defined oil prices for the past 30 years, it is a financial market," said Ardebili.
"You impose sanctions on major producers, founders of OPEC, and yet you are asking them to reduce the prices? Since when did you start ordering OPEC? Your tweets have driven the prices up by at least $10 per barrel," he added.
Oil prices have climbed sharply in recent months, with the price of a barrel hitting a multi-year high of around $78 on Wednesday. Prices for Brent crude, the international benchmark, have increased more than 60% in the last 12 months, as the chart below shows:
Trump's tweet on Wednesday came just a couple of days before OPEC meets in Vienna, and less than a week after the oil producer's cartel agreed to increase output by as much as 600,000 to 800,000 barrels a day to the market.
Soon after that deal was struck, Trump announced that he had done a separate deal with Saudi Arabia to increase production by "maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels."
"Just spoke to King Salman of Saudi Arabia and explained to him that, because of the turmoil & disfunction in Iran and Venezuela, I am asking that Saudi Arabia increase oil production, maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels, to make up the difference...Prices to high! He has agreed!" - he tweeted.
Such deals, Ardebili added in his statement, are discrediting OPEC.
"You are hammering on good guys in OPEC," he said. "You are claiming you are defending them. You are actually discrediting them and undermining their sovereignty, we expect you to be more polite."