Oil prices are rising on Friday and ending the week with steady growth due to problems with the transportation of energy resources through the Red Sea.
The movement of tankers in the Red Sea has sharply decreased due to attacks by Yemeni Houthis on ships.
The cost of February futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 7:20 a.m. is $80.04 per barrel, which is $0.65 (0.82%) higher than at the close of the previous session. As a result of previous trading, these contracts fell by $0.31 (0.4%) to $79.39 per barrel.
Futures for WTI for February in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose by $0.6 (0.81%) to $74.49 per barrel by this time. On Thursday, these contracts fell by $0.33 (0.4%) to $73.89 per barrel.
Since the beginning of this week, Brent has risen in price by 4.5%, WTI – by 3%.
On Thursday, oil prices fell on the information about Angola’s withdrawal from OPEC, where the country had been a member for 16 years. This decision of Angola indicates the existence of serious contradictions in OPEC, which is trying to limit production to support oil prices, Market Watch notes.
“At first glance, Angola’s withdrawal from OPEC is not such a big deal, given that the country could barely meet its production quota,” said Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn.
“The concern, however, is that Angola’s withdrawal could signal latent tensions over OPEC ceding market share to non-member producers,” he said, according to Market Watch.
