Oil Refinery
Agencies – Oil prices largely stabilized on Monday, after rising by more than 6% last week due to escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The price of West Texas Intermediate oil futures for March rose 8 cents to settle at $76.92 a barrel.
The April Brent contract settled at $82 a barrel, down 19 cents, or 0.23%.
Oil prices are struggling to break out of the $10 trading range despite tensions in the Middle East.
In this context, Tamas Varga, an analyst at BVM Oil Brokerage, said that the most significant rise would require an extreme scenario, such as a direct US attack on Iran, an event that could lead to the disruption of crude supplies.
The price of American crude and the international benchmark rose last week after Israel rejected Hamas’ proposal for a ceasefire and pledged to continue its attack on Gaza until the southern city of Rafah, located on the border with Egypt.
Geopolitical risks, including fears of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict expanding across the region and the possibility of disruption to oil supplies from the Middle East, pushed prices up about 6% last week.
While supply concerns in the Middle East remain relatively high, news from the United States has allayed some concerns.
US energy companies increased the number of oil and natural gas rigs to their highest levels since mid-December, which may indicate an increase in production. Domestic production returned last week to a record level of 13.3 million barrels per day.
Short link
Copy text
2024-02-12 20:29:12
#Oil #prices #cling #weeks #gains #rising #tensions #Middle #East #Hapi #Newspaper
