By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices had risen by more than four percent early Friday after the United States airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump assassinated a top Iranian general, Mr Qasem Soleimani, in Iraq. This event caused tensions in the Middle East and fears at the global market.
Business Post reports that on Friday night, prices were still up as Brent traded up by 3.55 percent equivalent to $2.35 to trade at $68.60 per barrel, while the WTI crude was up by 3.04 percent equivalent to $1.86 to trade at $61.14 per barrel.
Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was killed in the strike near the Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.
According to statement released by the Pentagon, Mr Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members” and that the strike was aimed at “deterring future Iranian attack plans.”
On its part the Iranian supreme leader, Mr Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared three days of mourning for the death of his trusted military chief and said that a “hard revenge awaits criminals.”
The last time a large-scale event had move oil prices this up was in September when attacks on Saudi Arabian production facilities upset 5 percent of the daily global oil supply driving futures up by almost 15 percent.
Also supporting prices, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Friday reported that crude supplies in the United States fell by 11.46 million barrels for the week ended December 27.
This was larger than expectations from analysts polled which had forecast a decrease of 3.1 million barrels, backing up expectations made by the American Petroleum Institute (API) earlier this week as they reported a 7.8 million-barrel drop this week.
Analysts also believe that with this attack by the United States, oil prices could have traded higher up to $100 per barrel but the weight of supply coming from Non-OPEC producing countries like Brazil, Norway, and Guyana have tilted market balance leaving investors to bank on how the latest actions will affect prices next week.
