Brent oil price ends the week lower, near $106 even as Iran sanctions heat up

Brent crude oil futures end the week’s trading session lower, near $106 a barrel as oil prices failed to edge higher even as sanctions against Iran look set to roll out EU wide as European officials consider banning all Iranian oil imports the week.

Brent Oil Futures – Closing Price

ICE Brent crude oil futures for January 2012 delivery ended the week’s trading session at $106.64 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange, or 1.3 percent lower on the day, in one of 2011′s lightest trading sessions so far.

Brent oil futures closed last week’s session (Friday 19th November) at $107.81 a barrel.

Sanctions Against Iran

EU foreign ministers will meet next Thursday to try to hash out a political consensus to ban Iranian oil imports in what would mark an unprecedented step against the world’s third largest oil exporter over its alleged nuclear bomb program.

“There is a real intent to do this and this is a sector where the Iranians would really be hurt.” said one Brussels official.

Brussels diplomats cautioned that any final decision was at least a few weeks away and that it was too early to gauge potential opposition in the EU.

The EU earlier this year banned oil imports from Syria, but Iran is a far bigger source of oil into Europe, accounting for as much as 18 percent of the imports of some European countries.

Analysts are forecasting that the cost of sanctions designed to hurt Iran’s economy could still boomerang on Western consumers.

“The move would tighten the European crude market considerably and lead to even higher oil prices.” Vienna based consultancy JBC Energy said in a note this week.

However, Iran’s oil reserves are so vast they cannot be excluded from the world market as France is urging the West to do, the Mehr news agency quoted the National Iranian Oil Company head as saying on Friday.

“Iran possesses massive oil and gas reserves… Thus ignoring Iran in oil and gas exchange will not be acceptable by the international community.” said Ahmad Qalebani, who is also a deputy oil minister.

“The market is balancing between negative Europe economy concerns versus worries about oil sanctions against Iran and what the repercussions from that will be.” said Tom Bentz, director at BNP Paribas Prime Brokerage, New York.

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Brent oil price ends the week lower, near $106 even as Iran sanctions heat up