By Adedapo Adesanya
Prices of crude oil continued to plummet across the global oil market on Thursday as top listed oil markets all recorded fall in prices of the commodity.
Leading the pack was the West Texas International (WTI) crude which dropped a whopping 2.04 percent and peaked at $56 per barrel.
Following it closely was the Brent Crude Oil which recorded a drop of 1.93 percent to drop to $62 per barrel, shedding $1.23.
Prices had been trading higher earlier on Thursday, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it seized a foreign oil tanker, which it claimed was smuggling 1 million liters of fuel near the island of Larak in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, according to The Wall Street Journal which cited Iran’s state news agency IRNA.
It should be recalled that China had on Wednesday responded to U.S. President, Donald Trump’s threat to impose a tariff of over $300 billion on Chinese imports that it could complicate peaceful resolutions.
The recent Middle East conflict come amid reports of a softening rhetoric between Iran and the U.S. which some experts believe could push crude oil prices higher as new supplies hit the market if energy-export sanctions are lifted.
However, other experts are skeptical about a U.S.-Iran resolution with the tension between the countries providing support for crude oil prices.
Dipo Olowookere