Oil falls as Saudi, Russian output rises

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Monday as supplies from Saudi Arabia and Russia rose while economic growth stumbled in Asia amid a escalating trade dispute with the United States.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 fell $ 1.24 a barrel to a low of $ 77.99 before recovering to $ 78.40, down 83 cents, by 0735 GMT. U.S. light crude oil CLc1 was 50 cents lower at $ 73.65.

Oil prices rose sharply last week, with the U.S. crude contract falling in at 3-1 / 2 years at $ 74.46.

A flurry of U.S. announcements over the weekend unsettled oil markets.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday that Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud agreed, "maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels". The White House later on back on the comments.

Saudi Arabia's output is up by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) from May, a Reuters survey showed, and close to its 10.72 million bpd record from November 2016.

Russian output rose to 11.06 million bpd in June from 10.97 Million bpd in May, the Energy Ministry said on Monday.

U.S. C-OUT-T-EIA has soared 30 percent in the past two years, to 10.9 million bpd, meaning the world's biggest oil producers now almost 11 million bpd each, meeting a third of global oil demand.

Also, China, the European Union, India and Canada.

Asia's main economic hubs of China, Japan and South Korea reported in slowdown in export orders in June amid escalating trade disputes with the United States.

"Recurring salvos in the trade and falling global economy," U.S. bank JPMorgan said.

The bank said "medium-intensity (trade) conflict would be likely to reduce global economic growth by at least 0.5 percent," before accounting for financial conditions and sentiment shocks.

Despite the relief from Saudi Arabia and Russia, oil markets remain untouched because of unplanned outages from Canada to Venezuela and Libya.

Looming U.S. sanctions against Iran further contribute to expected tightness.

Trump Threatened in an interview that aired on Sunday to put sanctions on European companies that do business with Iran.

"The Trump Administration's plan for Iran sanctions is now abundantly clear. They seek to push Iranian exports of crude, condensate, and oil products to zero, "energy consultancy FGE said in a note.