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Hannah Grover, Farmington Daily TimesPublished 7:00 a.m. MT April 3, 2020
AZTEC — Two tweets sent by President Donald Trump on the morning of April 2 spurred optimism for an oil industry hit hard by a flood of oil from Saudi Arabia and Russia, driving down the price.
But Dan Fine, an energy researcher and associate director of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy at New Mexico Tech, said he is skeptical that the president has a deal.
Four Corners Economic Development hosted a webinar April 2 during which Fine provided updates on current industry conditions and forecasts.
Trump tweeted that he has spoken to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin and expects those two countries will decrease oil output by 10 million barrels. His second tweet stated that the two countries could decrease output by 15 million barrels.
These Tweets come after oil prices fell by two-thirds in the first three months of the year.
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President Donald Trump expressed hopes that Saudi Arabia and Russia may reduce oil production, which would help the industry. (Photo: Twitter screengrab)
Fine said Russia, which has been frustrated by some of the U.S. foreign policies including moves to sell oil to Belarus, is prepared to go six months to a year at the current low prices.
And Saudi Arabia previously tried a similar tactic of flooding the market with oil in 2014.
“This is a second chance for them,” he said. “They’re not going to easily give this up.”