Crude is starting the week by charging lower, as supportive rhetoric from OPEC over the weekend has done little to allay fears of ongoing strong supply this year – especially if OPEC does indeed end production cuts mid-year, and should U.S. production continue to show signs of life. Hark, here are five things to consider in oil markets today. 1) President Trump’s energy plan has been published on the White House website, saying the new President ‘is committed to achieving energy independence from the OPEC cartel’. This seems an unlikely event, given the U.S. imported well over 3 million barrels per day from the cartel last year, amid joint ventures on the U.S. Gulf Coast with various countries. Looking at Arab Gulf flows to the U.S. – also including Oman – imports averaged over 1.8mn bpd last year. Saudi sent nearly 1.1mn bpd, while Iraqi volumes climbed over 430,000 […]