The price of Brent oil futures moved back over $120 a barrel late on Thursday on crude oil supply worries and Brent traded near an eight month high as traders scrambled to line up alternative supplies amid outages in Yemen, South Sudan and worries about near term flows from Iran boosted prices.
Latest Brent Oil Price
In London, Brent crude oil futures for April 2012 delivery was trading at $120.23 a barrel, 07.35 GMT today on the ICE Futures Exchange.
The European contract ended Thursday’s session at $120.11 a barrel, or 1.1 percent higher.
Iran European Supply Cuts
Iran’s threat to cut off crude supplies to Europe, well ahead of a European Union embargo this summer, has sent jitters through the market as refiners in the region look for alternative supplies.
Meanwhile, some Asian buyers, backing away from Iranian crude amid tightening sanctions in response to Iran’s nuclear program, have been buying up other crudes favored by European refiners.
That buying spree, underpinning Brent, has been fueled further by a strike in Yemen that has shut in about 900,000 barrels of crude oil, usually bound for Asia. Meantime, supplies of South Sudan crude, have been missing from the market since January, further tightening the menu of crude available for Asian buyers.
Negotiators from Sudan and South Sudan are expected to begin talks next to resolve a dispute over transit fees that has kept output of some 450,000 barrels a day off the market.
“The numbers today are bullish, but the primary reason we are higher is the Iran fear premium.” said Todd Horwitz, chief strategist at Adam Mesh Trading Group, New York.
Excerpt from:
Brent oil price moves over $120 a barrel on crude oil supply concerns
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.