NEW YORK/SINGAPORE: Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday on supply concerns with the US stepping up efforts to limit Venezuelan and Iranian oil exports, while a bigger-than-expected drop in US crude inventories also lent support.

Brent crude futures gained 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $73.22 a barrel by 7:04 a.m. Saudi time, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 20 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $69.20 a barrel.

Both contracts hit their highest in three weeks in the previous session.

“Crude oil prices maintain their bullish bias after Trump’s sanctions on Venezuelan oil, raising supply-side concerns,” Priyanka Sachdeva, a senior market analyst at Phillip Nova, wrote in a market commentary on Wednesday.

On Monday Trump signed an executive order authorizing his administration to impose blanket 25 percent tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act on imports from any country that buys Venezuelan crude oil and liquid fuels.

Oil is Venezuela’s main export. China, already a target of US import tariffs, is its largest buyer.

Trade of Venezuelan oil to top buyer China stalled on Tuesday, as Chinese traders and refiners said they were waiting to see how the order would be implemented and whether Beijing would direct them to stop buying.

Washington last week also imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran’s oil sales targeting entities including Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical, a “teapot,” or independent refinery in east China’s Shandong province, and vessels that supplied oil to such plants in China, the top buyers of Iranian crude.

The market was also buoyed by American Petroleum Institute data that showed US crude inventories fell by 4.6 million barrels last week, a sign of healthy demand for fuel in the world’s largest economy.

Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting a decline of 1 million barrels.

Official US government data on crude inventories is due on Wednesday.

The upswing in oil prices is a temporary phenomenon, with the potential economic slowdown due to Trump’s tariffs keeping a lid on price gains, Phillip Nova’s Sachdeva said.

Further capping oil prices, the US reached deals with Ukraine and Russia to pause attacks at sea and against energy targets, with Washington agreeing to push to lift some sanctions against Moscow.

Kyiv and Moscow both said they would rely on Washington to enforce the deals, while expressing skepticism that the other side would abide by them.

KARACHI: IMF staff and Pakistani authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on the first review under Pakistan’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and on a new arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), the IMF said on Tuesday. 

Islamabad secured the $7 billion EFF last summer to help claw its way out of an economic crisis, with an immediate disbursement of about $1 billion.

“The strong implementation of the EFF-supported program continues, and the authorities remain committed to advancing a gradual fiscal consolidation to sustainably reduce public debt, maintaining a sufficiently tight monetary policy to keep inflation low, accelerating cost-reducing energy sector reforms to enhance its viability, and implementing Pakistan’s reform agenda to accelerate growth, while strengthening social protection and health and education spending,” the IMF said in a statement as it announced the staff-level agreement. 

The agreement comes after an IMF team led by Nathan Porter held discussions from February 24-March 14 in Karachi and Islamabad.

The review will ensure “total access over the 28 months of around $1.3 billion,” the IMF said.

“The staff-level agreement is subject to approval of the IMF’s Executive Board. Upon approval, Pakistan will have access to about $1.0 billion (SDR 760 million) under the EFF, bringing total disbursements under the program to about $2.0 billion.”

Porter said over the past 18 months, Pakistan had made significant progress in restoring macroeconomic stability and rebuilding confidence despite a challenging global environment. 

“While economic growth remains moderate, inflation has declined to its lowest level since 2015, financial conditions have improved, sovereign spreads have narrowed significantly, and external balances are stronger,” the statement said. 

Porter said it was critical to entrench the progress achieved over the past one and a half years, building resilience by further strengthening public finances, ensuring price stability, rebuilding external buffers and eliminating distortions in support of stronger, inclusive and sustained private sector-led growth.

The IMF program has played a key role in stabilizing Pakistan’s economy and the government has said the country is on course for a long-term recovery.

Meanwhile, the RSF will support Pakistan’s efforts in building resilience to natural disasters, enhancing budget and investment planning to promote climate adaptation, improving the efficient and productive use of water, strengthening the climate information architecture to improve disclosure of climate risks, and aligning energy sector reforms with mitigation targets.