Oil prices fell on Friday as investors weighed weak U.S. fuel demand and took some money off the table at quarter-end, while key inflation data for May boosted the chances the Federal Reserve will start to cut interest rates this year.

Brent crude futures for August settlement , which expired on Friday, settled up 2 cents at $86.41 a barrel. The more liquid September contract fell 0.3% to $85 a barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled 20 cents lower, or 0.24%, to $81.54.

Donald Trump reportedly asked some top oil industry executives last month to donate $1 billion to support his election campaign and also promised the executives that he would reverse President Biden's green energy policies and stop new ones from being enacted if he is reelected.

The donation request, first reported by Washington Post, was made when he met the oil giants at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, for a dinner last month and one executive complained about not getting enough support from the Biden administration.

Former President Donald J. Trump told a group of oil executives and lobbyists gathered at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month that they should donate $1 billion to his presidential campaign because, if elected, he would roll back environmental rules that he said hampered their industry, according to two people who were there.

Heading into an election in which energy prices figure to be a key issue, President Biden and some of the country’s biggest oil companies have reached a surprising detente.

The truce comes after years of acrimony: The White House routinely slammed windfall oil-and-gas profits as pump prices surged in 2022, and industry executives bemoaned Biden’s campaign promise to transition the U.S. away from oil.

The US is the largest crude oil producer in the world, pumping out nearly 13 million barrels on average every day in 2023, an all-time record, according to new data from the US Energy Information Administration.

That’s an awkward milestone for President Joe Biden, who has arguably done more than any modern president to facilitate America’s transition away from fossil fuels to greener alternatives.

The U.S. led the world in oil production for the sixth consecutive year in 2023, according to a new report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Crude oil production in the U.S., including condensate, averaged 12.9 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2023 — a level which surpassed the American and global record of 12.3 million b/d that the U.S. set in 2019. Average monthly U.S. crude oil production also reached a record high in December 2023 at more than 13.3 million b/d.

In mid-December, I wrote here that the U.S. had set a new annual oil production record:

“The U.S. set a new annual oil production record on December 15, based on data from the Energy Information Administration. Although the official monthly numbers from the EIA won’t be released for a couple of months, we can calculate that a new record has been set based on the following analysis.”

At least sixteen universities are promoting the book “How to Blow Up A Pipeline,” which outlines for readers how to commit eco-terrorism — oftentimes making it required reading, a Daily Wire investigation found.

The book was published in 2021 by Swedish professor Andreas Malm and calls for terrorism and overthrowing capitalism, acknowledging that people will be killed as a result. “Demolish them, burn them, blow them up. Let the capitalists who keep investing in the fire know that their properties will be trashed,” the book says.

Activist shareholders said on Friday they had withdrawn a climate proposal they had intended to put for vote during Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab' annual meeting after the oil giant sought to block the move through a Texas court.

"There is no basis for Exxon to continue this attack" after the proposal was withdrawn, said Arjuna Capital, who had filed the proposal with activist investor group Follow This.

"This amounts to tactics of intimidation and bullying" to silence investors that voice climate-risk concerns," said Natasha Lamb, Arjuna Chief Investment Officer.