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
Oil prices stabilized on Thursday (February 12th), as the market reassigned a risk premium to US-Iran tensions despite US inventory data showing swelling domestic supplies. This movement confirms one ...
Oil prices rose on Wednesday (February 11th), supported by a combination of geopolitical risk premiums from US-Iran tensions and more solid Asian demand signals particularly from India which helped ea...
Oil remained in the green zone on Tuesday (February 10th), as the market refused to abandon the Middle East risk premium. As of 13:07 GMT (20:07 WIB), Brent rose +0.4% to $69.32/barrel, while WTI rose...
Oil prices fell about 1% on Monday as concerns about conflict in the Middle East eased slightly. The market calmed after the US and Iran agreed to resume talks on Tehran's nuclear program, reducing fe...
Oil prices moved slightly higher in a volatile session on Friday, as investors assessed the direction of nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran. Price movements appeared sensitive to ...
Oil prices stabilized on Thursday (February 12th), as the market reassigned a risk premium to US-Iran tensions despite US inventory data showing swelling domestic supplies. This movement confirms one thing: geopolitical headlines are still more...
Gold prices weakened slightly on Thursday (February 12th), as more solid US employment data reduced market confidence in an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate cut. The strong employment data prompted market participants to shift expectations of...
The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to...