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There are two conversations happening about oil right now, and they are not really talking to each other. One is about geopolitics and the other is about the price at the pump. Both got loud on Thursday.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) went after President Donald Trump and the White House's pro-fossil fuel stance, tying it to elevated energy costs and the tensions between Washington and Tehran during the ongoing war.
In a post on the social media platform X on Thursday, Newsom shared a clip of his appearance at the COP31 conference in Türkiye. "Donald Trump's head is stuck in sand soaked with oil," the California governor said in the post. "He's a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Oil," Newsom said.
He also criticized Trump's "aggressive assaults" on climate leadership with his policies. "California will continue to dominate with a low carbon, green growth economy that can't be held hostage by foreign wars or Big Oil's greed," Newsom said.
Meanwhile, GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan, in a post on X, warned that Trump's comments about no deal with Iran could be detrimental to oil. "I don't think oil markets are going to like this," he said.
In the same thread, De Haan also warned that "after softening the tone previously in regards to escalation, this [Trump's comments] certainly is not moving the needle in the right direction."
Notably, Iran's top security official, Mohsen Rezaee, had earlier warned the U.S. against carrying out fresh strikes against Iran, saying that the move could result in lethal strikes on U.S. bases across the Middle East and Europe, which will become "legitimate targets" for Tehran.
Gas prices fell further as the American Automobile Association (AAA) data showed the national average price of gas on Thursday to $3.9082/gallon. Diesel prices also fell on Wednesday, with the national average at $6.0977/gallon.
At press time, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures expiring in December were down 0.07% to $88.68. On the other hand, Brent futures contracts expiring in January gained 0.50% to $96.30 at the time of writing this article.
The ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil (NYSE: UCO) was down 0.37% to $53.50 during overnight trading on Thursday. The United States Oil Fund (NYSE: USO) ETF slipped 0.14% to $145.87 during overnight trading.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) delivered sharp criticism of Democratic Party lawmakers as the GOP incurred setbacks in the midterm elections earlier this month after Former Secretary of State John Kerry said that voters had chosen to vote for a pro-climate stance in the midterms. DeSantis warned that cutting oil production will not reduce costs.
Oil companies like Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) saw a slight uptick in overnight trading on Thursday. CVX shares were up 0.53% to $217.50. Meanwhile, COP shares also gained 0.16% to $140.29. XOM was up 0.34% to $170.35 during overnight trading.
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