Oil prices are rising on Friday morning, heading for a second consecutive week of increases on heightened fears of the Israel-Hamas conflict spreading in the Middle East. This could help lower production in one of the world’s most vital oil-producing regions.

A barrel of the European reference oil, Brent, costs USD 93.24 on Friday morning, compared to USD 90.99 on Thursday afternoon. At the same time, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil is trading at USD 90.51, up from USD 87.95 Thursday afternoon.

Fears of an imminent Israeli invasion of Gaza were fueled on Thursday when Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border that they would soon see the area ”from the inside”, according to Reuters.

”The main concern remains that the escalation of tensions we are likely to see with Israeli forces entering Gaza this weekend means that crude oil is headed for higher prices,” Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG, tells the news agency.

Concerns about the involvement of more countries in the Gaza conflict have been heightened by the US defense intercepting missiles fired from Yemen towards Israel.

Oil prices are also supported by forecasts of a widening supply deficit in the fourth quarter after Saudi Arabia and Russia extended their production cuts until the end of the year.

A temporary easing of sanctions against Venezuela, which will make it legal for the country to trade oil for a period of six months, is not expected to significantly ease concerns about the Middle East threat that is currently pushing up oil prices. According to Reuters, this is because the Venezuelan oil sector is facing a significant recovery.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Kristoffer Grønbæk)