Oil prices continue to rise today, with North Sea Brent crude oil exceeding 89 dollars per barrel for the first time since October. Fears of disruption to crude supplies to the market due to the escalating conflict in the Middle East and ongoing Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia are contributing to the rise in oil prices.
Market Volatility
Brent crude climbed as high as $89.08 a barrel today, according to Bloomberg data, but lost some of its gains later. Shortly after 14:00 CET, it showed a gain of about 1.3 percent and hovered near $88.5 a barrel. US light crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained around 1.4 percent at the same time and was slightly below 85 dollars a barrel.
Targeted Strikes: Ukrainian Drone Hits Russian Oil Refinery
The target of a Ukrainian drone attack today was an oil refinery in the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk. According to Reuters, analysis of images of the attack shows that a unit used for primary refining, which accounts for about half of the plant’s total production capacity, was hit.
Iranian President Ebrahim Ra’isi today described Monday’s air strike on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus as a violation of international law that will not go unanswered. Tehran had already on Monday attributed the incident to Israel, which as usual did not comment on the action.
Geopolitical Unrest
Israel is now at war in the Gaza Strip with the Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas movement. PVM analyst Tamas Varga said direct involvement by Iran could spark “conflict across the region with potential impact on oil supplies”.
Traders are also awaiting Wednesday’s meeting of the OPEC+ group, which is made up of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies led by Russia. The group is expected to keep in place a voluntary production cut of 2.2 million barrels a day until the end of June.
Source: čtk
