Around 6:00 p.m., the barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in October rose 2.50% to 95.35 dollars
Oil prices continued to rise on Monday, briefly gaining more than 4% following OPEC+ decided to slightly lower its crude production targets for October.
Around 6:00 p.m., a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in October rose 2.50% to 95.35 dollars.
The barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in September took 2.53%, to 89.07 dollars.
The OPEC+ countries (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies) decided on Monday to reduce their production, a first since the drastic cuts made due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of the request.
If this decision should not have an impact on the overall balance of the market, it is intended “a symbolic gesture to show the market that the group will act to support prices if they seem to collapse”, explains to the AFP Matthew Holland, analyst at Energy Aspects.
Analysts agree that this slight drop in the alliance’s production targets is intended to put a floor on crude prices.
“OPEC+ wants to defend oil prices above $90 a barrel,” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.
At the same time, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said on Monday that he was “less confident” regarding a rapid conclusion of negotiations to save the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement, of which he is the coordinator. .
The hopes of revival of the agreement, and with them the lifting of part of the sanctions once morest Tehran leading to the return of Iranian oil to the market, had been revived last week, before being showered by the United States.
On the natural gas market, prices exploded on Monday, following the announcement of the complete shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which was to resume service on Saturday following maintenance.
The Dutch TTF futures contract, the benchmark for the European market, traded at 242 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), soaring by nearly 13%, the surge in price compensating in one session for part of the plunge of the previous week.
Nord Stream 1 will finally be “completely” stopped until the repair of a turbine of this vital pipeline for the supply of Europeans, announced Gazprom, invoking the discovery of “oil leaks” in the turbine during the maintenance operation.
Not enough to justify, from a technical point of view, stopping the gas pipeline, according to the turbine manufacturer Siemens Energy.
With this new closure, “the European energy crisis has entered a new critical phase”, warns Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “These are fears of the worst-case scenario that European leaders had prepared for.”
For Pierre Veyret, analyst at ActivTrades, this new interruption of Russian deliveries via Nord Stream 1 comes “in retaliation” once morest the cap on the purchase price of Russian oil decided on Friday by the leaders of the G7 nations.
The Kremlin assured Monday that the stoppage of deliveries was the sole fault of the West, because their sanctions prevent the maintenance of gas infrastructure.
