Oil prices clocked up more multi-year highs on May 10 as traders adjusted to the prospects of renewed U.S. sanctions against major crude exporter Iran amid an already tightening market.
Brent crude futures hit their strongest since November 2014 at $77.76 per barrel today. WTI crude futures also marked a November-2014 high, at $71.75 a barrel, and they still stood at $71.67 a barrel at 0219 GMT, up over half a dollar, or 0.7%, from their last settlement, the Financial Express reported.
The U.S. plans to impose new sanctions against Iran, which produces around 4% of global oil supplies, after abandoning an agreement reached in late 2015 which limited Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for removing U.S.-Europe sanctions. Oil prices rose sharply in response to the announced measures.
Goldman Sachs said the planned unilateral U.S. sanctions against Iran would likely have a “high level of efficiency”. As a result of sanctions and because of risks to supplies elsewhere, the U.S. bank said “this leaves risk our summer $82.50 per barrel Brent price forecast (is) squarely skewed to the upside”.
