Oil prices remain unchanged, with Trump's dispute with India looming in the background.

Oil prices on the New York Stock Exchange are little changed after three sessions of declines, with investors assessing the intensification of threats from US President Donald Trump against India for buying Russian oil, brokers said.

A barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery on September 9th is trading at $66.28 on the NYMEX in New York, down 0.02 percent and after falling 0.35 percent earlier.

Brent on ICE on X is trading at $68.78 per barrel, up 0.03% and down 0.32% earlier.

Investors are assessing the intensification of threats from US President Donald Trump against India for buying Russian oil.

President Donald Trump stated that India buys cheaper Russian raw materials for its own needs, but also resells them for profit and does not care about the fate of the victims of the war in Ukraine.

"India not only buys huge amounts of Russian oil, but also sells a significant portion of it on the open market for a large profit. They don't care how many people in Ukraine are killed by the Russian war machine," Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

"For this reason, I will significantly increase the tariffs paid by India to the United States," he warned.

The American president had previously announced that he would impose a "penalty" on India for buying oil and weapons from Russia.

On Friday, Donald Trump said he had "heard" that Indian authorities had abandoned purchasing Russian oil. However, a day later, a spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry announced that there had been no change in that regard.

According to previous announcements, new US tariffs on goods from India are to reach 25% from Thursday, but Donald Trump's posts on Truth Social suggest the tariffs will be higher.

The US President also announced that he would impose "secondary tariffs" of 100 percent on goods from countries purchasing oil and natural gas from Russia.

"There's a lot of talk in India about tariffs, but there's also a clear risk that other buyers of Russian oil will have to face this issue," said Warren Patterson, head of commodity strategy at ING Groep NV.

"The more buyers of Russian oil that are subject to US tariffs, the more difficult it will be for the oil market to cope with potential disruptions," he warned.

Meanwhile, the OPEC+ alliance countries reached an agreement a few days ago to increase oil production by 547,000 barrels per day from September.

The countries that make up OPEC+ (Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman) decided on Sunday to increase crude oil production, raising concerns on the markets about a global oversupply of oil at a time when the trade war led by the United States may have a negative impact on economic growth and energy demand.

"The basic forecasts for the oil market are extremely pessimistic," Patterson said.

"The increase in oil supply from OPEC+ countries will result in the oil market having a surplus of raw material from the fourth quarter of 2025," he added.

"The key and very real threat to such a situation, however, is the possibility of the US introducing secondary tariffs on buyers of oil from Russia," Patterson emphasized once again.

(PAP Business)

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