Oil prices have been trending upward over the last two months, up around 22 percent since the start of the year. Much of this upward support on prices comes from the OPEC+ deal to trim 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from global production, as well as geopolitical problems hitting Venezuela’s and Libya’s oil production as well as U.S. sanctions eating into Iranian exports. The elephant in the room has been and will continue to be, stellar U.S. production, which backed by production from the Permian Basin, has reached 12.1 million bpd. The problem with U.S. oil output, at least for OPEC and other producers, is that American producers are prohibited by strict antitrust laws at collectively managing output, or even discussing it among themselves or with outside producers, like OPEC. However, Thursday morning more developments broke that will weigh on oil prices. On Thursday, President Trump said that […]