Oil prices steady, poised for weekly loss

Oil drilling rigs

Oil prices remained steady on Friday, heading for a weekly loss. US President Donald Trump aims to increase his country’s crude oil and natural gas production during his second term, which began last Monday.

Futures for benchmark Brent crude for March delivery, the most active contract, remained flat at $78.22 a barrel as of 09:23 am KSA time.

Similarly, US WTI crude futures for March delivery held steady at $74.55 a barrel after falling by over 1% in the previous session.

Global benchmark crude futures are down approximately 3.2% for the week, while US crude futures are set to record a loss of about 4.3%.

This came after Trump declared a state of emergency in the energy sector on his inauguration day to boost oil and natural gas production.

In an online address yesterday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Trump announced that he will ask OPEC to slash oil prices.

Priyanka Sachdeva, Senior Market Analyst at Phillip Nova, told Reuters that oil prices have been declining throughout the week due to Trump's energy policies and the reduced war risk premium in Gaza after Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire agreement earlier this month.