Oil prices rise slightly on Monday morning as the focus of investors returns to concerns about limited supply following a temporary Russian ban on fuel exports.

At the same time, investors are cautious about any upcoming interest rate hikes that could affect demand.

A barrel of the European reference oil, Brent, costs USD 93.79 on Monday morning compared to USD 93.77 on Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil is trading at USD 90.43 compared to USD 90.37 on Friday afternoon.

The Russian government last week announced a temporary ban on exports of both diesel and gasoline to stabilize the country’s market, adding to concerns of tight supply heading into winter.

Oil prices have seen a rise of more than 10% in the past three weeks on expectations of limited supply in the fourth quarter after Saudi Arabia and Russia extended their export and production cuts until the end of the year, according to Reuters.

However, oil prices fell on Thursday last week after three weeks of increases, on top of the US Federal Reserve signaling that another interest rate hike by the end of the year is not unthinkable, increasing concerns about demand.

In the US, the number of oil rigs in operation last week fell by eight to 507, the lowest number since February 2022, according to a weekly report from Baker Hughes, Reuters reports.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Kristoffer Grønbæk)