Oil gains Tuesday
Despite concerns about aggressive central bank interest rate hikes possibly leading to economic fatigue and lower fuel demand, not to mention political violence in Iraq Monday evening, oil prices gain roughly a dollar per barrel Tuesday morning, Reuters reports.
A barrel of European reference oil Brent trades for USD 104.19 Tuesday morning CEST against USD 103.36 Monday afternoon. US counterpart West Texas Intermediate sells at the same time for USD 96.64 against USD 95.59.
Several of the world’s largest economies are now approaching double-digit inflation rates, perhaps resulting in higher and more aggressive interest rates hikes from the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
Meanwhile, Russia is exporting far more oil than forecast following the the nation’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters cites International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol saying.
Birol points out, though, that Russia will end up having a tough time maintaining output level as soon as Western nations’ embargo takes effect.
Thus, IEA member states could start releasing more oil from strategic petroleum reserves to avoid feeling the effects of sanctions, the executive director notes.
Monday night, violence erupted in Baghdad, Iraq, between government forces and Mahdi militias loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who had just announced his withdrawal from politics, with attacks near the Green Zone government headquarters and areas hosting many embassies. The clash resulted in 20 deaths, the news agency writes.
Since the most recent election last year, the Middle Eastern country has been the site of numerous political confrontations, and as the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, conflict there tends to buoy crude prices, say analysts from Shanghai-based Haitong Futures.
”As a major oil exporter with an output of over 4 million barrels per day, [Iraq’s] domestic situation has no less impact on oil prices than Iran,” Haitong’s analysts tells Reuters.
TotalEnergies pulls out of Russian gas field after alleged breach of sanctions
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