London, Friday, 4 February 2022 -
Over reports of supply interruptions in Libya and an explosion on an oil production ship off the coast of Nigeria, oil prices rose on Friday, set for rises for the seventh week in a row.
At 0654 GMT, international benchmark Brent crude was trading at $91.44 per barrel, up 0.36 percent from the previous session's close of $91.11 per barrel.
At the same time, the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $90.78 per barrel, up 0.56 percent from the previous session's close of $90.27.
During the previous trading sessions, both benchmarks cleared $90 a barrel on rumours of supply problems in Libya and Nigeria, the latter of which has previously struggled to reach OPEC+ production targets.
An oil and gas vessel caught fire off the coast of Nigeria on Thursday.
The tanker, which has a daily processing capacity of about 22,000 barrels of oil, had 10 workers on board when it caught fire near the Delta region, according to a representative of the tanker's owner, Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd. The company has launched an investigation into the cause of the fire.
The supply policy of OPEC keeps the market tight.
Higher oil prices were further bolstered by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) recent decision to cap output growth at 400,000 barrels per day.
"We will not see any significant downward pressure on price as long as OPEC keeps its production consistent," said Randall Mohammed, a financial representative with Northwestern Mutual in the United States and an energy market expert.
Short-term geopolitics play a smaller effect in supply-demand fundamentals than actual production curtailment caused by missile assaults on production, storage, transportation, and refining infrastructure, according to Mohammed.
(Written and edited by: The Decision Maker)
