Brent oil crude reached USD 80, the highest since May this year

Aurel Dragan 13/09/2018 | 08:19

Brent oil futures reached USD 80 per barrel after a larger than expected decrease in USA crude inventories and sanctions to Iran that added concerns over global oil supply.

Benchmark for Brent crude settled at USD 79.74 after reaching USD 80.13, the highest level since May this year. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose to USD 70.37 a barrel, the highest in one week.

“Today’s crude stock draw of 5.3 million barrels fell far short of the (American Petroleum Institute’s) decline but was significantly larger than the normal draw of around 1 million barrels for this particular week,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note cited by Reuters.

The OPEC cuts its forecast for oil demand growth in 2019 in its monthly report and said rising challenge in some emerging and developing countries could negatively impact global economic growth.

Oil traders are also looking at the evolution of the category 4 Hurricane Florence, which is expected to make landfall in the USA coast by Friday.