Brent oil price closes bullish week at $100, Egypt in focus

Brent oil futures end a bullish trading week firm around $100 a barrel as Egypt tensions remain the biggest factor for higher oil prices.

Brent Oil Futures – Closing Price

Brent crude oil futures for March 2011 delivery ended the week’s trading session at $100.12 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange, which is $0.81 higher than Brent’s close last week at $99.31.

Tens of thousands of protesters swarmed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square Friday, continuing their calls for Mubarak to step down. With concerns growing that Mubarak may be losing his grip on the nation, oil traders exited positions that bet on rising prices, worried that developments in the volatile situation could quickly move against them.

Meanwhile, EU leaders plan to call on Mubarak to begin the process of transferring power, according to a draft statement the bloc is set to issue.

An orderly transition from Mubarak’s regime would likely calm oil markets, reducing the odds that unrest spreads to neighboring states or disrupts the two key oil routes running through Egypt.

The Suez Canal and the Sumed pipeline together carry nearly 3 million barrels of oil and fuel a day between the Middle East and Europe.

Neither have been affected by the unrest, and the IEA said oil markets would be able to reroute and reallocate available supplies in the event of a closure, though deliveries could be delayed by two weeks.