Oil prices are rising on Monday amid fears of disruptions in the supply of raw materials through the Red Sea due to attacks by Yemeni Houthis on ships.
The Suez Canal Authority said it was “closely monitoring” the situation after the US reported 14 Yemeni Houthi attack drones shot down on Saturday, targeting merchant ships. A number of shipping companies, including A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS and Hapag-Lloyd, have announced that they will suspend the passage of their vessels through the Red Sea.
The Red Sea “is one of the most important routes for maritime oil supplies,” accounting for about 10% of global flows, says Manish Raj, managing director of Velandera Energy Partners.
The cost of February futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange as of 7:20 a.m. on Thursday amounted to $76.88 per barrel, which is $0.33 (0.42%) higher than at the close of the previous session. As a result of previous trading, these contracts fell by $0.06 (0.1%) to $76.55 per barrel.
January futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rose by $0.36 (0.5%) to $71.79 per barrel by this time. On Friday, contracts fell by $0.15 (0.2%) to $71.43 per barrel.
Over the past week, Brent rose by 0.9% and WTI by 0.3%. Both brands ended the week in the black for the first time since late October due to growing expectations of monetary policy easing by the Federal Reserve next year.
