A day after US President Donald Trump pressured OPEC and its de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, to lower prices as part of a broad campaign to increase crude production, oil markets sank on Friday.

Brent oil futures were down 50 cents to $77.95 per barrel at 00:44 GMT. American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude lost 31 cents to $74.31. During his speech on Thursday in Switzerland, Trump said he would require the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to reduce the cost per barrel of crude oil. The decrease in U.S. crude inventories, which hit their lowest level since March 2022 last week according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, has prevented oil prices from falling further