Both benchmarks posted a weekly gain of 2.7% to close Friday at their highest since January 14. A strike group of US military aircraft carriers and other assets are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said the US had an “armada” against Iran but hoped he would not have to use it as he told Tehran not to kill protesters or restart its nuclear program.
On Friday, a senior Iranian official said Iran would treat any attack “as an all-out war against us.”
“President Trump’s statement about a US armada heading toward Iran has reignited fears of supply disruption, adding a risk premium to crude prices and supporting risk aversion flows more broadly this morning,” said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore.
Kazakhstan’s Caspian Pipeline Consortium said on Sunday it has returned to full loading capacity at its terminal on the Black Sea coast, after completing maintenance at one of its three berths. In the US, crude oil and natural gas production fell and power prices rose on Friday as a winter storm began to sweep across the country.
“Oil production has also been hit by severe winter weather, with losses of about 250,000 barrels per day (barrels per day), including declines in Bakken, Oklahoma and parts of Texas,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note.
#Oil #holds #gains #Iran #investors #edge