- Brent oil futures rose above $90 a barrel today.
- Hamas and Israel’s conflict poses one of the most critical geographical risks on the oil markets since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
Brent oil futures rose above $90 a barrel today after passing the threshold on Friday. This is as investors waited to see if the Israel-Hamas conflict would draw in other countries. Brent futures fell to 39 cents, or 0.43%, at $90.50 a barrel at 11:20 GMT. United States.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 26 cents, or 0.3%, to $87.43 a barrel. Both benchmarks climbed nearly 6% on Friday, taking Brent 7.5% higher weekly and WTI up 5.9%. This is as investors priced in the possibility of a wider Middle East conflict. Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the war between Islamist group Hamas and Israel poses one of the most critical geographical risks on the oil markets. This is amid concerns about any potential escalation involving Iran.
Also, a PVM analyst, John Evans, said, “The situation remains fluid and ugly for price prediction with little chance of a return to a relatively normal market.” The United States last week imposed the first sanctions on owners of tankers carrying Russian oil, which is priced above the G7’s price cap of $60 a barrel. This is an effort to close loopholes in the mechanism designed to deprive Moscow of revenue for its energy sales.
PVM analyst John Evans, on price rises at the end of last week, said, “The sudden decision on tightening up of sanctions on ship owners carrying Russian crude over the $60/barrel limit by the U.S. have started to have a fuss. So did the Russian/Saudi meeting concluded by President Putin stating that OPEC was achieving ‘stability.” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak echoed Putin’s sentiment, saying Russia believes it is essential to keep working in OPEC to stabilise the market.