UPDATE - Trump Calls OPEC 'Illegal', Says Could Impose Oil Tariffs To Protect US Energy Industry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2020) US President Donald Trump says the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is destroying itself, but he is also ready to impose tariffs on foreign oil if it is required to protect the US energy business.

"I've been against OPEC all my life, because what is it? It's an illegal, you could call it a cartel, you could call it a monopoly, but it broke down very violently, so I don't care about OPEC, I couldn't care less about OPEC," Trump said on Saturday, at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, adding "They are destroying themselves."

Trump said that OPEC is "unfair" to the United States but is to the advantage of Russia and Saudi Arabia.

"We had a very good conversation, [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin and myself ... Oil is at a record low, nobody has ever seen anything like it, it's actually lower than you even think, and it's to their [Russia's] advantage. Obviously, it's to Saudi Arabia's advantage, they told me ... Saudi Arabia went much further than that, he thinks that a deal is going to be made at 10-million-barrels reduction, and maybe more than that, he actually indicated it would most likely be much more than that," Trump said.

Putin announced on Friday that oil production could be reduced by approximately 10 million barrels per day, should OPEC+ nations coordinate jointly to reduce output.

Trump said that he was confident in the US energy business.

"We are the number one producer in the world right now ... I am a big believer in our great energy business, and we are going to take care of our energy business, and if I have to do tariffs on oil coming from the outside or if I have to do something to protect our thousands or tens of thousands of energy workers and our great companies that produce all these jobs I'll do whatever I have to do," Trump told reporters.

On Saturday, Jason Kenney, the premier of the oil-producing Canadian province of Alberta, said that the US and Canada could potentially impose tariffs on oil imports from Russia and Saudi Arabia until the ongoing price dispute between Riyadh and Moscow was resolved.

OPEC+ countries are set to meet in the coming week to discuss the potential of reviving an oil output cut deal that expired on March 31.

OPEC member states, Russia, and other oil producing countries, together known as OPEC+, started capping supply in 2017. The oil output reduction agreement was extended several times, but on March 6, OPEC+ countries were unable to agree on an extension of a deal to limit oil production. Restrictions were lifted as the previous deal expired at the end of March, leading to a collapse in the market, in conjunction with a global drop in demand due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.