Oil prices climbed Friday after President Donald Trump said China has agreed to purchase American crude, following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
International benchmark Brent crude futures for July rose 1.49% to $107.30 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for June gained 1.55% to $102.74.
“They’ve agreed they want to buy oil from the United States,” Trump said in a pre-recorded Fox News interview that aired Thursday evening in the U.S. “They’re going to go to Texas, we’re going to start sending Chinese ships to Texas and to Louisiana and to Alaska.”
Trump described China’s “insatiable appetite for energy” and claimed the U.S. produces more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. Government data show the U.S. produced 23.6 million barrels of oil and other liquid fuels per day in 2025, compared with Saudi Arabia’s 11.21 million and Russia’s 10.53 million.
China remains the largest buyer of Iranian oil, importing about 1.4 million barrels per day last year, roughly 90% of Iran’s crude exports.
At the same time, U.S. crude and petroleum exports to China fell for a second consecutive year, dropping 25% to 237.8 million barrels in 2025. Crude shipments alone plunged 95% from 2023 to about 8.4 million barrels.
The announcement comes amid signs of a limited thaw in U.S.-China relations. Washington reportedly cleared sales of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips to several major Chinese technology firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com.
The move could mark a breakthrough for China’s AI sector, which has been constrained by U.S. export restrictions.
