Brent oil price falls to $89.6 per barrel

Oil prices fell slightly on October 17, with traders’ attention still focused on the situation in the Middle East, Report informs referring to Interfax.

The market reaction to the confrontation between Israel and Hamas will be restrained if the conflict does not further escalate, notes an analyst at Mizuho Bank Ltd. in Singapore Vishnu Varathan.

A jump in oil prices to $100-120 per barrel is not the bank’s base scenario, but the risk of such a rise is high and continues to grow, the expert noted.

The price of December futures for Brent oil on the London ICE Futures exchange was $89.63 per barrel, which is $0.02 (0.02%) lower than at the close of the previous session.

WTI oil futures for November in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) fell by this time by $0.16 (0.18%) to $86.5 per barrel.

The decline in oil prices on October 16 was facilitated by media reports that the US intends to ease sanctions against the Venezuelan oil sector.

According to The Washington Post, the governments of the US and Venezuela reached an agreement that could be announced as early as October 17. Caracas is committed to holding competitive elections in the country under international supervision next year, and Washington is committing to easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil, the newspaper reported.