Crude Oil Prices Rise Globally Amid Fall of President Assad’s Regime In Syria
This is as there are tensions between Iran and Israel even as of the time of this report.
The fall of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad regime has led to growth in Crude Oil prices.
The Crude oil prices’ growth have been due to uncertainty in the Middle East region.
This is as there are tensions between Iran and Israel even as of the time of this report.
Brent crude futures rose 36 cents, or 0.51%, to $71.48 per barrel by 0513 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 38 cents, or 0.57%, to $67.58 per barrel.
It would be recalled that Syrian rebels announced on state television on Sunday they had ousted President al-Assad, eliminating a 50-year family dynasty.
This offensive by the rebels raised fears of a new wave of instability in a region already gripped by war.
“The development in Syria has added a new layer of political uncertainty in the Middle East, providing some support to the market,” Tomomichi Akuta, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting told Reuters.
“But Saudi Arabia’s price reductions and OPEC+’s production cut extension last week underscored weak demand from China, indicating the market may soften toward year-end,” he said, noting that investors are watching for early signs of any impact on the markets from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s expected energy and Middle East policies.
This development is even as Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, reduced its January 2025 prices for Asian buyers to the lowest level since early 2021.
On Thursday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, had pushed back the start of oil output increases by three months until April, and extended the full unwinding of production cuts by a year until the end of 2026.
OPEC+ is responsible for about half of the world’s oil output, was planning to start unwinding cuts from October 2024, but a slowdown in global demand and rising output elsewhere have forced it to postpone the plan several times.
The number of oil and gas rigs deployed in the United States last week also hit the highest since mid-September, pointing to rising output from the world’s biggest crude producer.
With a supply surplus looming next year, both Brent and WTI posted losses for the past two straight weeks.
As prices slid, money managers raised their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to Dec. 3, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday.
