[ad_1]
Oil prices rose slightly on Friday as investors tried to gauge the potential impact on supplies of impending US sanctions on Iranian crude exports.
The most active futures contract on Brent crude in December rose 18 cents, or 0.22 percent, to $ 81.56 per barrel, to 0126 GMT. It was near a four-year high of $ 82.55 on Tuesday.
With the expiry of the Brent November futures contract later Friday, the April contract will become the December contract.
US futures rose 21 cents, or 0.29%, to $ 72.33 a barrel, on track for a weekly gain.
"The market is focused on trading headlines over Iran's sanctions for a whole week, but opinions on how OPEC and Russia can offset losses vary," said Chen Kai. responsible for research at Shenda Futures.
The sanctions began on November 4, with Washington asking Iranian oil buyers to reduce their imports to zero to force Tehran to negotiate a new nuclear deal and limit its influence in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia is expected to quietly add oil to the market in the coming months to offset the decline in Iranian production, but fears that it will have to limit its production next year to balance supply and demand. global demand. .
Two sources close to OPEC policy said that Saudi Arabia and other producers had discussed a production increase of about 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) between the Organization of Exporting Countries of oil and non-allied OPEC countries.
However, ANZ said in a note on Friday that major suppliers were not able to compensate for losses due to sanctions estimated at 1.5 million barrels per day.
At its peak of 2018 in May, Iran exported 2.71 million b / d, or nearly 3% of daily consumption of crude oil. The nation is the third producer of OPEC.
Meanwhile, the imminent supply of the United States and the stability of Libyan production have weighed on oil prices, said Stephen Innes, head of trading for the Asia Pacific region at the OANDA futures broker in Singapore.
Source link
