Oil Down as Easing Iran Unrest Dampens Geopolitical Risk Premium

Oil prices fell 1% on Monday, reversing the previous session’s gains, as civil unrest in Iran subsided, lowering the chance of a U.S. attack that could disrupt supply from the major Middle Eastern producer.

Brent crude was trading at $63.48 a barrel at 0912 GMT, down 65 cents or 1%.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate for February fell 65 cents, or around 1%, to $58.84 a barrel. The contract expires on Tuesday and the more active March contract was at $58.77, down 57 cents, or 1%.

Iran’s violent crackdown on protests spurred by economic hardship, which officials say killed 5,000 people, quelled the unrest.

U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to step back from his earlier threats of intervention, saying on social media Iran had called off mass hangings of protesters, although the country had not announced any such plans.

That appeared to lower the odds of a U.S. intervention that could have disrupted oil flows from the fourth-largest producer among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“The overriding sentiment of caution is due to the influence on how any expansion of a trade war, because of the U.S. and European fallout over Greenland, will have on global trade and by default, oil demand,” said PVM Oil Associates analyst John Evans.

The market, however, was also looking at the risk of damage to Russian infrastructure and distillate supplies at a time of forecasts of colder weather to come across North America and Europe, which along with concerns around Iran was making the market uneasy, he added.

U.S. markets are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Markets were also closely watching plans for Venezuela’s oil fields, after Trump said the United States would run its oil industry after the capture of Nicolas Maduro, but were less confident about the prospects for scaled-up Venezuelan production.

Kazakh oil producer Tengizchevroil, led by Chevron, said on Monday that it had temporarily halted production as a precautionary measure at the Tengiz and Korolev oilfields after an issue affected power distribution systems.

Reporting by Seher Dareen in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Colleen Howe in Beijing; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Kirsten Donovan

Share This:

---

More News Articles