2024-07-31 19:22:40
Oil prices accelerated their gains on Wednesday afternoon on fears of escalating tensions in the Middle East.
As reported by Day.Az with reference to Interfax, September Brent futures rose in price on the London ICE Futures exchange by $2.13 (2.71%), to $80.76 per barrel. Their exchange circulation expires at the end of the session on Wednesday. More actively traded October contracts rose in price during trading by $2.11 (2.7%), to $80.18 per barrel.
By this time, September futures for WTI had risen in price on the NYMEX exchange by $2.51 (3.36%), to $77.24 per barrel.
Both brands fell by 1.4% the day before and hit new lows since June 5.
The head of the political bureau of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed on the morning of July 31 in Tehran, where he had arrived to attend the inauguration of the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Hamas blamed the attack on Israel and said the group had no intention of stopping its struggle.
Pezeshkian promised that those responsible for Haniyeh’s murder would regret their actions. The Iranian Foreign Ministry reported that an investigation into the incident had begun.
“The market has increased its risk premium on oil prices ahead of details of events in Iran,” wrote ING analysts Eva Manthey and Warren Patterson.
Data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) released on Tuesday showed the country’s crude inventories fell by 4.5 million barrels in a week. Official inventory data is due out later on Wednesday, and analysts polled by Trading Economics expect it to show a 1.6 million barrel drawdown.
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