After President Trump announced Wednesday morning that Iran was backing off its stance of revenge over the killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani, oil prices fell.
Prices of West Texas Intermediate crude spiked to more than $65 on Tuesday and fell well below the pre-spike levels. WTI closed Wednesday at $60.06, down $2.64 or 4.21%. Brent crude in London was down $2.42 at $65.85, a decline of 3.54%. Natural gas prices were down one cent at $2.15, a change of .56%.
President Trump called the Wednesday de-escalation a “very good thing for the world,” although oil bulls, who had reaped big rewards following Iran’s fruitless missile attack on US bases in Iraq, may disagree.
U.S. oil companies were already rushing to hedge their production at the higher oil prices on Tuesday. According to industry sources that spoke to Bloomberg, many shale producers added more hedges for their production to lock in the higher prices for their output this year and the next.
Most of the major oil stocks were trading down on Wednesday as well, including ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), which was down 2.45%, Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) -3.62%), and EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) -1.78%.
Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy was down 0.075 at $0.825 or 8.33% while Devon Energy dropped $0.94 or 3.55% and closed the day at $25.55.
Marathon Oil Corp., an active player in Oklahoma’s SCOOP and STACK plays was down 51 cents or 3.70% and finished the day at $13.28.
ONEOK was down $1.20 at $75.65, a decline of 1.57%.
Phillips 66 dropped $4.04 and closed the day at $104.10 or a decline of 3.74%.
