Oil approaches 4-month high ahead of US inventories data

Economies.com
2019-09-17 12:58PM UTC

Oil continued to rise in the European market today, to extend gains for the second day near the 4-month peak reached yesterday, on concerns over the suspension of Saudi Arabia's production for a long time, as Aramco is expected to take months to fully recover from the severe damage after the sabotage attacks in Abqaiq and Khurais, and ahead of US oil inventories preliminary data.

 

WTI rose by 1.2% to $62.55 a barrel, from the opening of $61.84, with an intraday low of $61.59.

 

Brent rose by 1.6% to $69.24 a barrel, from the opening of $68.14, with a low of $67.60.

 

Yesterday, WTI closed higher by 12.75% or $7, its largest percentage gain since December 2008, and with a 4-month high of $63.33.

 

Brent futures closed higher by 13.25% or $8, the largest daily gain since the Gulf War in 1991, with the highest since May 30th at $69.64.

 

These massive gains were due to the sabotage attacks on two oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, which led to the suspension of 5% of the global production.

 

 Two Aramco oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais in the Eastern region, were hit on Saturday by sabotage attacks.

 

Aramco, which is the largest oil company in the world, said the attacks led to a cut by 5.7 million bpd in oil production, which is about 50% of the Saudi production, while the company did not announce the date for the resumption of production, but it's estimated for several weeks.

 

Bloomberg said today that Aramco is expected to take months to full recover from the severe damage after the sabotage attacks in Abqaiq and Khurais.

 

President Trump accused Iran of the attacks, but stressed that he doesn't want to go to war and that his country do not need the Gulf oil.

 

While Iran rejected responsibility in the attacks, and said that it's unacceptable and invalid.

 

Bearing in mind that the relations between the US and Iran have worsen since Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, which was followed by imposing sanctions on Iranian oil exports.

 

Meanwhile, the US is now waiting for further evidence from the Saudi authorities about Iran's involvement in the attacks, which is escalating the geopolitical tensions in the region to the highest level since the fist Gulf War in 1991.

 

Later today, the American Petroleum Institute (API) will release its preliminary data on US oil inventories, with forecasts of a drop for the second consecutive week, while the official data will be released tomorrow by the US Energy Information Administration.

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