- WTI price trades in positive territory near $62.15 in Wednesday’s early European session.
- Concerns over a potential supply disruption due to escalating tensions in the Middle East lift the WTI price.
- EIA said oil prices will decline in the months ahead due to rising inventories.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US crude oil benchmark, is trading around $62.15 during the early Asian trading hours on Wednesday. The WTI climbs after Israel’s air force carried out a strike on Hamas’s senior political leadership in Qatar, raising fears of wider conflict in the Middle East.
Israel on Tuesday attacked the Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar. This attack came a few hours after Israel warned it was planning to attack Gaza. These developments have led to fears of a disruption in crude oil supplies to global markets, which boosts the WTI price.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to launch a unilateral attack against Hamas in Qatar “does not advance Israel or America’s goals.”
On the other hand, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said it expects global crude prices to be under significant pressure in the months ahead due to rising inventories. This, in turn, might limit the upside for the black gold.
About the data, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday that crude oil stockpiles in the US for the week ending August 29 rose 1.25 million barrels, compared to an increase of 622,000 barrels in the previous week. So far this year, crude oil inventories are up 8.7 million barrels, according to oil price calculations of API data.
