Oil prices rose by 4% due to downtime of terminal in Turkey
2023.02.07 12:56
Oil prices rose by 4% due to downtime of terminal in Turkey
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – On Tuesday, those who were long crude had the opportunity to push prices significantly higher for a second day in a row due to the outage of an oil export terminal following the earthquake in Turkey. This was done in an effort to close the gap with the severe selloff that occurred last week.
By 11:45 EST (14:45 GMT), the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude traded in New York had increased by $2.86, or 3.9%, to $76.77.
After falling 7.5% last week to a three-week low of $73.11, the benchmark U.S. crude settled up 1% on Monday on fears of a recession and uncertainty regarding the direction of U.S. interest rates after huge employment gains among Americans in January threatened to bump up again.
After extending the 1.3 percent gain from Monday, Brent crude, which is traded in London, gained $2.37, or almost 4%, to $83.36. Brent, the global benchmark for crude, fell 7.5 percent last week, reaching a three-week low of $79.62.
According to Reuters, a major earthquake in the area halted operations at Turkey’s oil export terminal in Ceyhan, which exports Azeri crude oil to international markets. The facility will be closed from Feb. 6-8.
As China, the world’s largest crude importer, returns from a lengthy Lunar New Year break into an environment free of COVID-19 restrictions, continued bets on increased Chinese consumption also supported crude prices.
A daring attempt by Saudi Arabia, also betting on Chinese demand, to raise prices for its Asian-bound crude for the first time in six months contributed to oil’s upside. To compete with Russia’s Urals crude, which had experienced significant discounting over the past year as a result of sanctions imposed by the West regarding the Ukraine war, the kingdom had previously decreased the so-called OSP, or Official Selling Price, for its Arab Light crude.
