Crude Oil Futures

  The price of crude oil rose on Friday in line with short-term supply uncertainties. As of 10:30 GMT, the price of WTI and Brent stood at $68.45 and $71.98 respectively - with a rise of 1.53% and 1.29%. On political front, the bomb attack by the ISIS-K in Afghanistan targeting the US troops sent the shockwaves beyond the beleaguered country and the ripples are felt across many sectors, including the crude oil markets. Of course, Afghanistan is not an oil producing country. It, however, borders on countries that are key players in the crude oil realm, both as significant buyers and producers. The ideologically-driven militant activities could spill over porous borders easily and suck up the neighbours into the cauldron of what President Biden called, ‘for-ever-war’. In short, no regional country that borders on Afghanistan can claim to be insulated from the fast-evolving tentacles of militant threats. In addition, the sudden rise in oil price can also be attributed to the a

  The price of crude oil appears to have recovered the losses suffered throughout the last week. It got the much-needed boost this week when the data from the API, American Petroleum Institute and the EIA, US Energy Information Administration, showed draws in the US crude oil inventories. The EIA reported a draw of 3 million barrels and the same from the API was a modest 1.62 million barrels. Analysts feared that the outbreaks of the Delta variant in the US would hamper the demand for oil. Although the infections are on the increase, the development has not resulted in the anticipated steep decline in vehicles on the roads. The investors are upbeat about China becoming the key crude oil importer – once again; it has successfully kept the spread of the outbreaks at bay and the Chinese economic activities are limping back to normal, implying a recovery in its crude oil markets. The latest data shows that Chinese crude oil imports fell by 5.7% in June and July, compared to the sam

  Crude oil markets made a significant recovery on Monday, having been through disturbing price fluctuations in the last few days. As of 18:00 GMT, the price of WTI and Brent stood at $65.52 and $68.60 with a rise of 5.44% and 5.25% respectively. Since there was no change in the factors that usually affect the crude oil price at the weekend, the fall of price may be due to the negative sentiments that stemmed from the rapid fall of Afghanistan government, coupled with the US abrupt withdraw – and of course, the chaos ensued. Since Taliban stuck to its words so far, the tension in Kabul is in decline and normalcy returns to the capital. The anxieties of people, however, remain the same. The recovery of the crude oil markets, in this context, appears to be linked to the relative calm in Afghanistan and the possibility of yet another foreign intervention being low. Neither the Taliban nor its neighbours is out of the woods yet, though. The former has been adamant that the foreign

  According to the latest report on oil productions by the member states by the OPEC+, the Iranian crude oil output for July shows an increase by 28%, compared to the output for the same month last year. The figure for July, 2021 stood at 2.485 million bpd and it was 1.936 million bpd for the same period in 2020. The pandemic clearly accounts for the relatively low output in 2020. Despite being under the US-led sanctions, the increased production this year, however, coincides with numerous reports that say the crude oil production activities in Iran is gathering momentum. During the first few months of the Biden administration, the crude oil production in Iran started accelerating in proportion to the prevailing hope of reviving the JCPOA, 2015 Iran nuclear deal, at that time. There were a few false dawns during that period: at some point, Mr Hassan Rouhani, the then Iranian president, riding on a wave of optimism, even said that a deal was imminent with the signatories to the