Oil prices rose nearly 2% on Friday (November 14th), driven by supply concerns after the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk halted oil exports following a Ukrainian drone attack on an oil depot in Russia's key energy hub.
Brent crude futures rose $1.04, or 1.65%, to $64.05 a barrel at 14:28 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.15, or 1.96%, to $59.84 a barrel. The contracts were more or less stable this week. At those levels, Brent was headed for a weekly gain of about 0.7% and WTI was up slightly by 0.15%.
Friday's attack damaged a ship at the port, an apartment block, and an oil depot in Novorossiisk, injuring three crew members, Russian officials said.
The port has halted oil exports, and Transneft, the oil pipeline monopoly, has suspended crude oil supplies to the port, two industry sources told Reuters.
"The intensity of these attacks has increased, they are becoming much more frequent. Ultimately, they could hit something that causes long-term disruption," said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodities analyst at UBS. The market is trying to assess the impact of the latest attacks and what this means for Russian supplies in the long term, he said.
Industry sources said crude oil shipments through Novorossiisk reached 3.22 million tonnes, or 761,000 barrels per day, in October, with a total of 1.794 million tonnes of oil products exported.
Investors are also watching the impact of Western sanctions on Russian oil supplies and trade flows. Britain on Friday issued special permits allowing companies to continue working with two Bulgarian subsidiaries of the sanctioned Russian oil company, Lukoil, when the Bulgarian government takes control of the assets.
The US imposed sanctions prohibiting any deals with Russian oil company Lukoil after November 21 as part of an effort to bring the Kremlin to peace talks regarding Ukraine.
About 1.4 million barrels per day of Russian oil, or nearly a third of potential seaborne exports, have been added to stocks held on tankers as unloading slowed due to US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, JPMorgan said on Thursday. (alg)
Source: Reuters
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