Oil continues to rise amid Middle East conflict, Brent tops $110

Oil prices continued to rise today, with North Sea Brent returning to above $110 a barrel. Efforts to end the conflict in the Middle East have shown no significant signs of progress, while shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz remains paralysed, Reuters reported.

At around 8:45 CEST, Brent was up about 2.3 percent, approaching $111 a barrel. US light crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) had gained around two percent and was trading above $98 a barrel. In March, Brent prices climbed to nearly $120 a barrel.

Axios reported overnight into Monday, citing its sources, that Iran had submitted a new proposal to the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, with talks on Iran’s nuclear programme to be postponed until a later stage of negotiations. A Reuters source said, however, that US President Donald Trump was unhappy with the proposal.

“Peace talks still appear very superficial and lack concrete signs of de-escalation,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, an analyst at Phillip Nova.

“Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains restricted,” she added. Around a fifth of the world’s oil supplies normally pass through the strait.

On Sunday, US investment bank Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for the average price of Brent in the fourth quarter to $90 a barrel, from its previous estimate of $80, because of restricted supplies from the Middle East. It also said it now expects exports from the Persian Gulf to return to normal by the end of June, compared with its previous forecast of mid-May.

Oil prices in dollars per barrel (about 159 litres)