HOUSTON: Oil prices settled lower on Tuesday (Oct 10), but bounced off session lows as concerns eased about potential supply disruptions from the battle between Israel and Hamas, though traders remained watchful.
Brent crude settled down 50 cents, or 0.57%, at US$87.65 (RM414.45) a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude slid 41 cents to finish at US$85.97 (RM406.50) a barrel. At the session low, both benchmarks were down by more than US$1.
“Today it’s more like a ping pong game of fear-on, fear-off rather than trading on fundamentals,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group.
Brent and WTI had surged more than US$3.50 on Monday as the military clashes raised fears that the conflict could spread beyond Gaza.
“There was a little bit of profit-taking from the stark advance yesterday (Monday),” said John Kilduff, partner in Again Capital LLC.
While Israel produces very little crude oil, markets worried that if the conflict escalates it could hurt Middle East supply and worsen an expected deficit for the rest of the year.
“No direct oil supplies are impacted by the conflict at the moment so it’s a wait-and-see situation,” Kilduff said.
Vivek Dhar, an energy analyst at CBA, said: “We continue to believe that Brent oil will ultimately stabilise between US$90-US$100/bbl in Q4 2023.:
He added that the Hamas-Israel conflict raises the risk of Brent futures tracking at US$100/bbl and above.
In a more positive sign for supply, Venezuela and the US have progressed in talks that could provide sanctions relief to Caracas by allowing at least one additional foreign oil firm to take Venezuelan crude oil under some conditions. – Reuters