Brent oil price rises to $86.65 per barrel

Oil prices rose on October 13 and are ending the week in positive territory due to the worsening situation in the Middle East, Report informs referring to Interfax.

The prices for December futures for Brent oil on the London ICE Futures exchange amounted to $86.65 per barrel.

This is $0.65 (0.76%) higher than the previous session’s close.

WTI oil futures for November in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time had risen in price by $0.79 (0.95%) to $83.7 per barrel.

Since the beginning of this week, Brent has risen in price by 2.4%, WTI - by more than 1%, due to fears of a reduction in supplies from the Middle East as a result of the escalation of the conflict in the region following the Hamas attack on Israel.

Data on a sharp increase in US oil inventories and record production volumes led to a decline in the price of WTI on October 12. However, geopolitical risks, as well as forecasts for growth in global oil demand, continue to support the market.

US commercial oil inventories jumped by 10.18 million barrels in the week ending October 6, the US Department of Energy reported on October 12. Oil production in the country last week increased by 300,000 barrels per day (b/d), to a record 13.2 million b/d.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) on October 12 revised upward its forecast for global oil demand in 2023 and now expects it to grow by 2.254 million barrels per day (b/d), rather than by 2.243 million b/d as reported previously.

OPEC, in turn, predicts an increase in oil demand by 2.44 million b/d in 2023 and by 2.25 million b/d in 2024.