Oil up on potential supply shortages

LONDON, July 10, 2018 – Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday amid supply shortages, as Iran vowed to sell as much oil as it could.

West Texas Crude oil futures rose 0.84% to $74.47 a barrel as of 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT). Meanwhile Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., rose 1.65% to $79.36.

Iran’s vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, said that the U.S.’s attempts to stop oil exports would have an impact but the country would still “sell as much oil as we can.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has told countries to stop buying oil from Iran by November 4 or face consequences. Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Tehran in May.

Meanwhile a strike in Norway also boosted prices. Workers on Norwegian oil and gas rigs are expected to strike after rejecting a wage deal. The strike is likely to impact production levels. An outage at an oil facility in Canada has also reduced production into the U.S., while supply production falls in Libya and Venezuela have also increased the price of oil.

Elsewhere the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed in June to raise output at a nominal increase of 1 million barrels a day (bpd) amid pressure from the U.S. to decrease prices. While OPEC members will add around 700,000 barrels a day, non-OPEC oil suppliers led by Russia would add the rest. Investors worry the increase in supply could use up spare capacity and increase market volatility.

In other energy trading, Gasoline RBOB Futures increased 0.86% at $2.1715 a gallon, while heating oil rose 1.56% to $2.2300 a gallon. Natural gas futures were down 0.60% to $2.811 per million British thermal units.

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