The war of words between the United States and Iran has been heating up as the return of U.S. sanctions threatens to take more than 1 million bpd of Iranian oil off the market. That latest in a string of accusations came from a senior Iranian oil official, who said that U.S. President Donald Trump had been ‘taken hostage’ by Saudi Arabia and other oil producers who had him believe that they can compensate for the expected loss of Iranian oil exports. “It seems President Trump has been taken hostage by Saudi Arabia and a few producers when they claimed they can replace 2.5 million barrels per day of Iranian exports, encouraging him to take action against Iran,” Iran’s OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili told Reuters this week. Brent Crude prices briefly broke above $80 a barrel in May, after President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and […]