Brent hits 6-month high as US tightens Iran sanctions

Oil prices maintained its rise with the opening of the US market on Thursday, as Brent crude continued its rally for the fifth day in a row, recording the highest level in six months, as the US crude resumed its gains which were temporarily halted yesterday on correction processes, The rise comes amid concerns of a gloable supply gap in the market, especially after the United States tightened the sanctions on the Iranian oil exports.

As of 12:50 GMT, Brent crude rose to $75.10 a barrel from the opening level of $74.46 and recorded a high of $75.60 which is the highest since October 31st, and a low of $74.24.

US crude rose to $66.10 a barrel from the opening level of $65.77, with a high of $66.27 and a low of $65.52.

Brent crude added 0.2% yesterday, in its fourth consecutive daily gain, while US crude lost 0.6%, in its first loss in four days, on correction and profit taking after recording a six-month high of $66.58 per barrel a day before.

Oil prices have risen broadly since the start of the week, after the United States said on Monday, that it would end all the exemptions on the Iranian sanctions and demanded that countries stop the Iranian oil imports in May or face US sanctions.

US sources said that the sanctions against Iran had deprived its government of oil revenues of more than $10 billion since the US President, Donald Trump, announced the move for the first time in May.

The US decision to cut the Iranian oil exports to zero comes amid reductions in global supplies by the OPEC Plus alliance since the beginning of this year, aimed at balancing the market and supporting the prices.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced yesterday that the country's commercial inventories rose by 5.5 million barrels in the week ending April 19th, in the fourth increase in the past five weeks, exceeding experts' expectations of a 0.9 million barrels rise.

According to the data, the total US commercial inventories rose to 460.7 million barrels, the highest level since November 2017, in a negative sign of demand levels in the world's largest oil consumer.

As for the levels of US production, it increased last week by about 100 thousand barrels per day, bringing the total back to 12.2 million barrels per day, which is the highest level of production ever in the United States.