Oil prices fall slightly on Thursday morning as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, OPEC+, show no signs of supporting Iran’s oil embargo against Israel due to the conflict in Gaza. At the same time, oil prices are eased by US plans to loosen sanctions against the Venezuelan regime, which could increase global oil supply.

A barrel of the European reference oil, Brent, costs USD 91.03 on Thursday morning, compared to USD 91.36 Wednesday afternoon. At the same time, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil is trading at USD 88.09 compared to USD 88.20 on Wednesday afternoon.

According to Reuters sources, OPEC+ is not planning to act immediately on OPEC member Iran’s announcement.

”Although OPEC shows no indication of taking up Iran’s call to impose an oil boycott on Israel, oil will almost certainly become a feature of the conflict in several ways,” investment bank RBC Capital Markets writes in a note to investors, according to Reuters.

Israel imports 250,000 barrels of oil per day, most of which is from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iraq and African countries.

Oil prices are also eased by the US reaching an agreement with Venezuela to grant the country a six-month license to trade oil, which could help ease global oil prices during the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The license was granted on the basis that the Venezuelan regime and the opposition have reached an agreement to hold free elections in 2024, Reuters reports.

US crude oil and gasoline inventories fell more than expected last week by 4.5 and 2.4 million barrels respectively as a result of rising demand for diesel and heating oil, according to figures from the US Department of Energy. Analysts had expected a drop of 0.4 million barrels of oil and 0.2 million barrels of gasoline.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Kristoffer Grønbæk)