Oil prices climbed Wednesday to close at $99/barrel on the stock exchanges in Asia after an unexpected decrease of deliveries to the U.S., suggesting a bigger demand. Subsequently, the price exceeded $ 99 a barrel and Goldman Sachs analysts expect further increases, due to depletion of stocks and OPEC reserves. Benchmark oil contract with delivery in March rose 43 cents to 98.84 U.S. dollars/barrel at midday in Singapore in electronic trading on NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange).
Later, around 11:30 GMT, oil price rose to 99.13 U.S. dollars/barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil prices, traded on the London Stock Exchange (ICE Futures Exchange), has stagnated at around $116.23 a barrel after yesterday went up even more. The American Petroleum Institute announced on Tuesday evening that oil stocks fell by 4.5 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts forecast an increase of 2.3 million barrels. Oil prices hovered near the level of $100 a barrel in the last few months, while the traders reflected signs of improvement in U.S. economy amid the global slowdown.
“We continue to expect that the demand for oil will increase faster than production capacity. It is a matter of time until inventories and OPEC reserves will be exhausted completely, requiring higher oil prices to restrict demand”, Goldman Sachs analysts write in a report. Investors look carefully at the increased tensions between the West and Iran, the third largest oil exporter in the world. Iranian MPs try to force a plan to cease exports to Europe, before the European Union will impose an embargo this summer.
European Union embargo is part of a strategy of Western nations to push Iran to abandon its nuclear program, which U.S. and other countries believe that is used the build nuclear weapons. Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama announced sanctions for Iran’s central bank, which will make it difficult for Iran to sell oil to other countries.
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