The US OCTG market is keeping close tabs on oil prices this week, after Donald Trump reportedly caused a 3 percent price dip in global oil prices after tweeting his distaste at OPEC on Monday. "Oil prices getting too high. OPEC, please relax and take it easy. World cannot take a price hike - fragile!" Trump wrote.
Today, prices have edged back up, as OPEC is indicating it plans to maintain production cuts, despite pressure from Trump. One market player told SteelOrbis that Trump’s twitter habit isn’t doing any favors to the US drilling industry, noting that a previous tweet not only helped crash oil prices, but it also had a negative impact on the US stock market.
Another said the tweets cause problems for shale producers; while the US is still producing oil at record levels (year-over-year oil production is up by nearly 7 percent), there are only 54 more rigs targeting oil than there were during the same reporting period last year. As such, buyers and sellers of US domestic energy pipe say they’re being cautious.
As with last week, spot market prices within the US domestic J55 ERW OCTG are holding at $60.00-$62.50 cwt. ($1,322-$1,378/mt or $1,200-$1,250/nt), ex-mill, although prices may rise if US HRC prices continue to climb.