Oil prices traded lower on Wednesday as investors evaluated the potential impact of U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports.
By 2:45 pm AEDT (3:45 am GMT) Brent crude futures were $0.19 or 0.3% lower at US$77.31 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slipped $0.15 or 0.2% to $73.81 per barrel.
Earlier this week, oil benchmarks dropped to multi-week lows following heightened interest in Chinese startup DeepSeek’s low-cost artificial intelligence (AI) model, which raised concerns about energy demand for data centres. Weak economic data from China further dampened the demand outlook for crude.
Earlier in the week, Karoline Leavitt confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump still intends to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports by Saturday, while also considering additional tariffs on China.
Meanwhile, market reaction to U.S. crude stockpile data was muted. According to American Petroleum Institute figures released Tuesday, crude oil and gasoline inventories increased last week, while distillate stockpiles declined.
The EIA is set to release official data at 2:30 am AEDT Thursday (3:30 pm GMT Wednesday).
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister and key OPEC+ members have held talks in response to Trump’s recent call for lower oil prices ahead of next week’s OPEC+ meeting.
