Trump sets two-week deadline for US attack on Iran

Spanish Market: Crude oil
20/06/25

US president Donald Trump will decide whether to join Israel's offensive against Iran within two weeks, the White House said on Thursday, potentially lessening the prospect of immediate military action.

Oil futures fell following the comments, with August Brent futures dropping by as much as 2.7pc to a low of $76.72/bl in Asian trading. US markets were closed on Thursday for a public holiday.

"Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks," Trump said, in a message read out by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Trump has repeatedly hinted in recent days that the US may join Israel's bombing campaign against Iran. "I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do," he said on 18 June.

Trump has also previously set two-week deadlines for other major decisions that have subsequently lapsed without action being taken, most recently in late May, when he gave Russian president Vladimir Putin two weeks to show he was serious about ending the war in Ukraine.

By Kevin Foster

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15/07/25

Trump touts $92bn in investments in AI, energy

Washington, 15 July (Argus) — President Donald Trump said today his administration would fast-track permitting and take other steps to support billions of dollars in recently announced investments in Pennsylvania tied to artificial intelligence and energy production. Trump said an estimated $92bn in investments announced Tuesday would ensure the future will be "designed, built and made right here in Pennsylvania." The investments include data centers to support artificial intelligence, gas-fired power plants, nuclear power plants, pipeline upgrades, and natural gas supply agreements, although many of the projects announced appear to be early in development. "We're building a future where American workers will forge the steel, produce the energy, build the factories," Trump said at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University. Among the projects are plans to invest billions of dollars on the redevelopment of retired coal plants into sites that would host new gas-fired plants that would be co-located with data centers. Technology firms hope that developing data centers next to power plants will sidestep the years-long wait that would be required to upgrade the grid to supply their facilities with electricity. "You're going to build your own electric factory, and you're gonna make your own electricity," Trump said. "You can sell it back into the grid, you'll even make money from the electric business." Those projects include a plan by the firm Frontier Group to develop the site of the retired 2.7GW Bruce Mansfield coal plant into a "significantly larger" gas plant that would also host a "prospective" data center. Investment firm Knighthead Capital Management said it plans to repurpose the retired Homer City coal-fired power plant into a data center that will include 4.4GW in gas-fired power generation. Other projects will upgrade existing power plants. The firm Capital Power said it will spend $3bn over the next decade to expand a gas plant in Shamokin Dam, Pennsylvania. Google said it has reached a $3bn agreement for electricity from two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania. Constellation Energy said it was investing $2.4bn to upgrade its Limerick nuclear power plant. Trump said he was directing his administration to issue permits quickly for power plants proposed to supply electricity for data centers, with an apparent joke that the world's largest power plant would obtain environmental permits in "about a week" and about two weeks for nuclear plants. "These are permits that would have taken you literally 10 years to get," Trump said. "It's crazy all over the country, but we're freeing it up." The Trump administration has argued that making the US the leader in AI is one of its highest priorities. US interior secretary Doug Burgum said the administration determined early on that "losing the AI arms race" to China would be an "existential threat" such that it justified a declaration of an "energy emergency" to increase domestic energy production. "Energy dominance means prosperity at home, it means peace abroad, it's how we end wars, it's how we build and advance every industry we have," Burgum said. The administration has cited its support for AI to justify slowing the development of wind and solar projects they see as incompatible with the industry's demand for baseload power. Trump said wind "doesn't work" for data centers, and Burgum said he was "completely opposed to having unreliable, unaffordable intermittent energy as our future." Other administration officials have touted efforts to build more fossil fuel infrastructure. "This administration, we're going to make it much, much easier to build new power plants, new infrastructure, even transmission lines, natural gas pipelines," US energy secretary Chris Wright said during an interview with CNBC on the sidelines of the summit. By Chris Knight Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Trump to limit US weapon use by Ukraine

15/07/25

Trump to limit US weapon use by Ukraine

Washington, 15 July (Argus) — President Donald Trump's change of position on continued US weapons supply to Ukraine has revived a dilemma his predecessor had to consider: whether to place limits on Kyiv's ability to carry out strikes deep inside Russia's territory. Trump on Monday approved a plan to continue supplying US weapons to Ukraine, which will be financed by contributions from the EU and other NATO members. But he told reporters Tuesday that he is not considering providing long-range missiles to Ukraine and said that Kyiv "shouldn't target Moscow" with US weapons. The range of western-supplied missiles is well short of the distance from the Ukraine-Russia border to Moscow. Former president Joe Biden's administration last year gave authorization to Kyiv to use western weapons against targets in Russian regions bordering northeast Ukraine and against military targets beyond the Russian-Ukrainian border. Other NATO members also have removed most restrictions on use of their weapons. The Biden administration warned Kyiv against attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. But Ukraine used its own military drones to target Russia's sprawling oil infrastructure last year, causing some disruptions but barely affecting the exports of Russian crude and refined products. Few such attacks have taken place this year, but Washington-based experts attribute that to a change in Ukrainian military tactics, which now target air fields, weapons depots and command centers instead of Russian energy infrastructure. Trump on Monday said he would impose "secondary tariffs" on Russia — meaning penalties for countries buying Russian oil and other products — unless Moscow takes steps in the next 50 days to stop its war in Ukraine. "At the end of 50 days, if we don't have a deal, it's going to be too bad," Trump said Tuesday. "The tariffs are going to go on and other sanctions." The Kremlin has had a restrained reaction to Trump's threat, saying "we certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington" and advising to wait for President Vladimir Putin to respond directly. "We want to understand what the statement about '50 days' means," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. "We previously heard of '24 hours' and '100 days'", Lavrov said, likely referencing Trump's vow to stop the fighting in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office, subsequently amended by the White House to a pledge to stop the war in Ukraine within 100 days into his second term. The White House on 25 March announced that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to implement the "energy ceasefire", but the Kremlin immediately attached new conditions to the agreement and continued attacks on civilian energy infrastructure in Ukraine. Trump in late March promised to impose a 25pc "secondary tariff" on Russian oil sales if the energy ceasefire deal failed. On 27 May, he gave Putin a two week deadline to make progress in peace talks with Ukraine. The Trump administration so far has refrained from imposing additional sanctions against Moscow and even exempted Russia from punitive tariffs imposed on nearly every US trading partner in April. By Haik Gugarats Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

US claims energy-focused Indonesia trade deal

15/07/25

US claims energy-focused Indonesia trade deal

Washington, 15 July (Argus) — President Donald Trump said today he has secured a trade deal with Indonesia that would involve additional sales of US energy and agricultural commodities and Boeing aircraft. The deal, which Jakarta has yet to confirm, would commit Indonesia to buying $15bn worth of US energy commodities, $4.5bn of agricultural products and 50 Boeing aircraft, Trump said via his social media platform. Speaking to reporters earlier on Tuesday, Trump said the US, under the deal, would impose a 19pc tariff on all imports from Indonesia while that country would impose no tariffs on US products. Trump said he finalized the trade deal after speaking with Indonesia's "Highly Respected President" Prabowo Subianto Tuesday morning. Prabowo has just concluded a trade deal with the EU, which would result in mutual lowering of tariffs on trade. No other details on the US-Indonesia deal were immediately available from the White House and US trade agencies. Trump last week threatened to impose a 32pc tariff on all imports from Indonesia, beginning on 1 August. Indonesia's government has already directed state-owned Pertamina to assess the potential for importing refined products from the US. That directive coincided with a parallel push by Pertamina to shift away from importing oil products from Singapore and import more fuel from the Middle East and the US. The Trump administration since 5 April has been charging a 10pc extra "Liberation Day" tariff on most imports — energy commodities and critical minerals are exceptions — from Indonesia and nearly every foreign trade partner. Trump last week publicized letters sent to leaders of 24 countries, including Indonesia, dictating new, higher tariff rates he said would apply beginning on 1 August. The Trump White House said in April it expected to sign "90 deals in 90 days" following his "Liberation Day" tariffs. The US has clinched only one limited trade deal, which keeps in place a 10pc tariff on US imports from the UK while granting a lower-tariff import quota for UK-made cars. Trump has announced a deal with Vietnam, setting tariffs at 20pc, but other terms remain unknown. A preliminary trade deal with China, agreed in early May, established a separate 10 August deadline for reaching an agreement on tariffs. The US administration is engaged in talks with the EU, Canada and Mexico despite Trump's threats to raise tariffs on imports from those destinations to 30-35pc. Brazil, on the other hand, said it would reciprocate with higher tariffs on US products after Trump threatened to impose a 50pc tariff on imports from Brazil. Trump has justified imposing his "Liberation Day" tariffs by citing an economic emergency caused by allegedly unfair trade practices in foreign countries. His emergency-based tariff authority is facing challenges in US courts, with two lower-level courts ruling already in May that the White House could not impose such tariffs. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hold a hearing on 31 July in a case pitting the administration against a group of plaintiffs, including many US states. The US Court of International Trade, in an initial ruling on 28 May, found that Trump's emergency tariffs were unlawful and ordered the administration to rescind the import taxes and to refund already collected duties. The appeals court has suspended that decision until at least the 31 July hearing. By Haik Gugarats Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Opec+ 8 speed up output hike to 548,000 b/d for August

15/07/25

Opec+ 8 speed up output hike to 548,000 b/d for August

London, 15 July (Argus) — A group of eight Opec+ members have agreed to further speed up their plan to increase crude production, the Opec secretariat said on 5 July. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Russia, the UAE, Algeria, Oman and Kazakhstan will raise their collective crude production target by 548,000 b/d in August, relative to July. This compares with previous month-on-month hikes of 411,000 b/d for May, June and July. This pace is also four times faster than the eight's original plan to unwind 2.2mn b/d of voluntary crude production cuts at a rate of 137,000 b/d each month between April 2025 and September 2026. The decision means they will have restored almost 80pc of a scheduled 2.46mn b/d increase — which includes a 300,000 b/d capacity-related adjustment for the UAE — in just five months. Should the eight opt for another 548,000 b/d increase for September, they will have fully unwound the cuts 12 months earlier than planned. That would shift focus to a second layer of voluntary cuts totalling 1.66mn b/d that is being implemented by the same eight producers plus Gabon, which are scheduled to remain in place until the end of 2026. The move comes against a backdrop of continued economic uncertainty, largely driven by US trade policy and a rise in geopolitical risk owing to the recent 12-day Israel-Iran war. Supply fears linked to the conflict helped push front-month Brent futures to above $81/bl on 23 June, although prices have since fallen back to around $68/bl — below where many producers prefer. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Trump threatens 35pc tariff on Canada by 1 August

15/07/25

Trump threatens 35pc tariff on Canada by 1 August

Houston, 15 July (Argus) — The US will impose a 35pc tariff on all imports from Canada effective on 1 August, President Donald Trump said in a 10 July letter to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney. The letter, which Trump posted on social media, noted that Canada previously planned retaliatory tariffs in response to the US' first tariff threats in the spring. He repeated his earliest justification for the tariffs — the illegal smuggling of fentanyl into the US from Canada — and said he would consider "an adjustment" to the tariffs if Canada worked with him to stop that flow. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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Trump sets two-week deadline for US attack on Iran

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