US allows offloading of some LPG shipments, Treasury says

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration moved to allow the offloading of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) involving Petroleos de Venezuela SA until September 5, provided that the gas was loaded on a vessel on or before July 7, according to a notice posted to the US Treasury Department website on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the US will make several trade announcements in the next 48 hours, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday, ahead of a US deadline on Wednesday to finalize trade pacts.

“We’ve had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC. “So it’s going to be a busy couple of days.”

President Donald Trump said the United States would start delivering tariff letters from 12:00 pm ET (1600 GMT) on Monday.

The letters would not necessarily provide an ultimatum, according to Bessent.

“It’s just ‘thank you for wanting to trade with the United States of America. We welcome you as a trading partner, and here’s the rate, unless you want to come back and try to negotiate,’” he said.

KSE-100 breaks record again, gold down globally

Bessent declined to comment on whether negotiations on new ownership of the TikTok short video app, which President Donald Trump said would start this week, would be linked to trade talks.

He said he would meet with his Chinese counterpart in the next couple of weeks.

“I think there are things for us to do together if the Chinese want to do it, so we will discuss whether we are able to move beyond trade into other areas,” he told CNBC.

Meanwhile, Oil on Monday shrugged off the impact of OPEC+ hiking output more than expected for August as well as concern about the potential impact of US tariffs, with prices rising as a tight physical market lent support.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, agreed on Saturday to raise production by 548,000 barrels per day in August, more than the 411,000 bpd hikes they made for the earlier three months.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell as low as $67.22 a barrel but by 1320 GMT were up 88 cents, or 1.3 per cent, to $69.18. US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was at $67.60, up 60 cents, or 0.9 per cent, and up from an earlier low of $65.40.