Oil prices skyrocket due to uncertainty over the fallout of Iranian sanctions

BEIJING (Reuters) – Oil prices rose slightly on Friday as investors tried to gauge the potential impact of US sanctions on Iranian crude exports.

The most active futures contract on Brent crude for the month of December was $ 18.56 per barrel, compared with 0126 GMT. It was near a four-year high of $ 82.55 on Tuesday.

With the expiry of Brent's LCOX8 futures contract in November, the LCOc1 contract will become the December contract.

CLc1 US currency futures advanced 21 cents, or 0.29%, to $ 72.33 per barrel, on track for a weekly gain.

"The market is focused on trading securities on Iranian sanctions for a whole week. However, opinions on the amount of losses incurred by OPEC and Russia may vary, "said Chen Kai, head of commodity 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 country is the third largest 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.