Kuwait oil minister says OPEC monitoring market, Trump remarks on Russian oil

KUWAIT, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Kuwait's oil minister Tariq Al-Roumi said on Thursday that OPEC is closely monitoring global oil supply, demand trends, and U.S. President Donald Trump's recent remarks on Russian oil.

"Through OPEC, we are monitoring the market in terms of supply and demand, and we are monitoring the U.S. President’s statements," Al-Roumi told reporters, adding that he expects oil prices to be below $72 per barrel.

The minister described the market as healthy, with demand growing at a moderate pace.

Oil prices slid about 1% to an eight-week low on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks about progress in talks with Moscow created uncertainty over whether the U.S. would impose further sanctions on Russia.

Trump has threatened additional sanctions on Moscow if no moves are made to end the war in Ukraine.

Washington imposed on Wednesday an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing New Delhi's continued imports of Russian oil.

The CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said that the country's quota production according to OPEC's latest agreement is 2.548 million barrels per day (bpd) and it has capacity to produce more.

"We are producing this quota, and we have a production capacity that far exceeds that, and we use this capacity when necessary," Sheikh Nawaf S. Al-Sabah said to reporters.

OPEC and its allies, together known as OPEC+, agreed on Sunday to raise oil production by 547,000 barrels per day for September.

The latest in a series of accelerated output increases aimed at capturing market share was in line with market expectations and marked a full and early reversal of the group's largest tranche of output cuts, amounting to about 2.5 million bpd, or about 2.4% of global demand.