Oil prices rose slightly on Wednesday morning after the United States imposed high secondary tariffs on India to curb Russian oil imports, despite a report showing a smaller-than-expected decline in U.S. crude inventories last week.

West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery last week rose US$0.24 to US$64.49 per barrel, while Brent crude for October rose US$0.20 to US$67.42.

The Trump administration followed through on its threat to impose a 50% tariff on most U.S. imports from India to curb Russian oil imports. The tariffs took effect just after midnight on Wednesday, doubling the previous tariffs imposed on the country. The Guardian reported that the Indian government has refused to halt imports from Russia.

India's defiance of the U.S. tariffs comes amid rising global supply, with OPEC+ set to add 548,000 barrels per day of new supply on September 1, the final stage of rolling back 2.2 million barrels per day of production cuts to the market.

"Crude oil futures prices stabilized after Tuesday's slump after Trump imposed 50% tariffs on most US imports from India, fulfilling a threat to punish one of the world's largest economies for its purchases of discounted Russian oil. However, these concerns continue to be offset by the growing risk of oversupply amid rising OPEC+ production," Saxo Bank noted.

The American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday that its weekly survey of US oil inventories showed stocks fell by 0.97 million barrels last week, while the consensus estimate among analysts polled by Oilprice.com was for a decline of 1.7 million barrels. The Energy Information Administration will release official inventory data on Wednesday morning. (alg)

Source: MT Newswires