Home » World » Oil prices climb to seven-year highs

Oil prices climb to seven-year highs

Falling prices at gas stations or for heating oil do not seem to be in sight. In the case of crude oil, the price curve continues to point steeply upwards despite Corona.

New York

Oil prices continued their recent rally on Tuesday, marking seven-year highs.

The price for a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent rose to 88.13 US dollars, a barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was traded at up to 85.74 dollars. These are the highest price levels since October 2014.

By midday, oil prices were down again, but they were still more than a dollar higher than the day before. Oil prices have been soaring for some time. In the first few weeks of this year alone, the Brent price rose by around twelve percent after the price had risen by around half last year. Since the low in the Corona crash in spring 2020, the increase has totaled almost 450 percent.

Experts explain the tendency of rising oil prices with a limited supply and at the same time increasing demand. The rapidly spreading omicron variant of the corona virus has not been able to stop the trend so far. The variant is more contagious than other virus variants, but at the same time the diseases are weaker. Some countries like Great Britain have therefore taken much more moderate restrictions than in previous corona waves. This supports the economy and leads to higher oil demand.

However, Commerzbank’s experts are of the opinion that market participants are currently increasingly perceiving price-driving news. Oil prices also received support on Tuesday from renewed tensions between Yemen’s Houthis and a Saudi-led opposing coalition. The Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone attack in the United Arab Emirates, a major oil producer.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:220118-99-753469/4

– .

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.