By Dan Molinski 

Oil prices fell from two-month highs Thursday after President Trump said oil prices have been rising too much, and urged major oil producers in the Middle East to find a way to get them lower.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery ended 0.4% lower at $70.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the U.S. benchmark had settled at $71.12 a barrel, its highest closing level since July 10. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 0.9% Thursday to $78.70 a barrel.

"We protect the countries of the Middle East, they would not be safe for very long without us, and yet they continue to push for higher and higher oil prices!" Mr. Trump said in an early-morning post on the social-media site Twitter. "We will remember. The OPEC monopoly must get prices down now!"

Oil prices had been rising in the overnight session, but declined immediately after the tweet was published, and remained lower during the New York session Thursday.

Mr. Trump's comments follow a nearly 10% rise over the past 30 days in the price of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark for crude oil. That has helped send the average price of gasoline for U.S. consumers to $2.86 a gallon, compared with $2.83 a month ago and $2.59 a year ago, according to price-tracking service GasBuddy. In July, Mr. Trump partially blamed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for rising U.S. pump prices.

The president's remarks also come just ahead of a meeting in Algeria this weekend among key members of OPEC and Russia-led non-OPEC oil producers, where they are likely to discuss oil prices and production levels.

Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia officials reportedly indicated they would be comfortable with oil prices rising a bit more, at least temporarily, and those reports may be what set off the president.

Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities, said immediately following Trump's Tweet that the remarks may not have a long-lasting effect on oil's upward trend.

"The question is, will this reverse market sentiment?" Mr. Cardillo said. "We don't think so. It may lean on prices for a brief period of time, but the fundamentals and the Iranian situation are behind a solid run up."

Mr. Cardillo was referring to U.S. sanctions on Iran that prohibit countries and companies from buying Iranian oil exports. The ban on Iran oil exports takes effect officially in November, but its impact is already being felt, which is reducing global oil supplies and helping to push oil prices higher.

OPEC's response to the pressure from Washington in terms of where it sets production levels may ultimately determine the direction in oil prices, said one analyst.

"The organization has limited options and will look to Saudi Arabia for leadership as some members have pressured internally to increase production for their own national interests," said Alfonso Esparza, senior analyst at foreign-exchange trading group Oanda. "This time the U.S. is mixing political and economic factors to force an increase in supply, even though the White House is the one who triggered the latest disruption" by sanctioning Iran.

Thursday's decline in oil prices followed a nearly 2% rise Wednesday after a weekly report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed U.S. crude inventories had fallen by 2.1 million barrels last week, to 394 million barrels. It was the fifth consecutive week of declines and the lowest level since February 2015.

The EIA data on U.S. inventories is unmatched in terms of reliability and accuracy, and as such many investors view it as the best gauge for overall supplies. Coming weekly EIA reports thus may end up having more of an impact on prices than any more rhetoric from Washington or OPEC.

Among refined products, gasoline futures for October delivery fell 0.3% to $2.0146 a gallon. Diesel futures fell 0.8% to $2.2280 a gallon.

Write to Dan Molinski at Dan.Molinski@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 20, 2018 16:35 ET (20:35 GMT)