Oil prices drop as OPEC+ output offsets US-China trade deal

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, marking their third day of declines as an OPEC+ plan to raise output outweighed optimism about a potential United States-China trade deal.

Brent crude futures fell 83 cents or 1.26% to $64.79 a barrel at 0757 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 75 cents or 1.22% at $60.56.

“Traders weighed up progress in U.S.-China trade talks and the broader outlook for supply,” ANZ said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The softer prices come after Brent and WTI last week registered their biggest weekly gain since June, reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft.

Investors continue to chew over how effective those sanctions on Russia might be.

OPEC+, which groups the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, is leaning towards another modest output boost in December, four sources familiar with the talks told Reuters.

Having curbed production for several years in a bid to support the oil market, the group started reversing those cuts in April.

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But supporting the market is the prospect of a trade deal between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest oil consumers, with Trump and President Xi Jinping due to meet on Thursday in South Korea.

Beijing hopes Washington can meet it halfway to “prepare for high-level interactions” between the two countries, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone call on Monday.

Following the U.S. sanctions, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil said on Monday it would sell its international assets.

This is the most consequential action so far by a Russian company in the wake of Western sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, which started in February 2022.

International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday that sanctions on oil-exporting countries could push up crude prices, but the effect will be limited because of surplus capacity.

The Star