US oil taking the place of cuts by OPEC

UPI:

U.S. oil production is offsetting OPEC losses and keeping oil prices in check, though trends in fuel supplies are indicative of negativity, a trade group said.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported total crude oil production for the week ending Aug. 10 at 10.9 million barrels per day, meaning the United States is on par with Saudi Arabia in terms of global production leaders.

"With total U.S. liquid fuels production, up by more than 2.0 million bpd year-over-year, the United States has been the world's only substantive source of oil production growth so far in 2018 and more than compensated for production losses in some OPEC nations," API Chief Economist Dean Foreman said in a statement.

Of the 15 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, seven of them in July produced less on average than they did the previous month. OPEC members are voluntarily trimming production in an effort to support a market that was weakened significantly by a surplus in the five-year average in crude oil inventories held by the world's leading industrialized economies.
...

This makes it much easier for the markets to absorb the loss of Iranian oil caused by the reimposition of sanctions.  It allows the Trump administration to put more pressure on Iran to go along with the general uprising in that country.