World oil prices at two-week high on new sanctions on Iran

Pumping gas for vehicles at a gas station in Cairo, Egypt. Illustration photo: AFP/TTXVN

At the end of the session, Brent crude oil futures rose $1.18 (1.8%) to $65.85/barrel. US light sweet crude oil (WTI) rose $1.14 (1.9%) to $62.47/barrel.

Both oil benchmarks closed at their highest levels since April 3, according to data from financial information and stock exchange LSEG.

On the same day, the US issued new sanctions targeting Iran's oil exports. The sanctions come as the Trump administration seeks to increase pressure on Tehran and bring Iran's oil exports to zero.

The move comes as the US government resumed talks with Iran over its nuclear program this month.

The latest data released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that the country's crude oil inventories increased, while gasoline and distillate inventories decreased last week.

Specifically, US crude oil reserves increased by 515,000 barrels to 442.9 million barrels in the week ending April 11. This figure is higher than the 507,000 barrel increase expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

Amid the growing US-China trade dispute, several major banks including UBS, BNP Paribas and HSBC have cut their crude oil price forecasts.

Janiv Shah, vice president of commodity market analysis at energy trading firm Rystad Energy, said that based on a conservative estimate of a 15% decline in global GDP growth due to the impact of the trade war in 2018-2019, oil demand growth could slow to just 600,000 barrels per day by 2025. This is only about half of the estimates before the tariff war.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202504/gia-dau-the-gioi-cao-nhat-trong-hai-tuan-do-lenh-trung-phat-moi-doi-voi-iran-1f00b79/