Brent oil prices are trading higher on Monday, passing back through $ 111 a barrel after EU ministers agreed to ban Iranian oil imports to Europe, effective July 1, whilst traders said the move had been largely priced into the market, resulting in a somewhat muted price response.
Latest Brent Oil Price
In London, Brent crude oil futures for March 2012 delivery was trading at $ 111.22 a barrel, 15.30 GMT today on the ICE Futures Exchange.
Some analysts suppose, the embargo is likely to do far more damaging to European nations than it would ever be to Iran.
Iranian oil accouns for 34.2 percent of Greek oil imports, 15 percent of Spain’s and 12.4 percent of Italy’s in the first nine months of last year, according to the latest EU statistics.
“We were hoping to see the EU agreement effective right away. They’re talking about July 1, so that’s a little bit of a negative.” said Tom Bentz, director at BNP Paribas Prime Brokerage.
US Oil Demand at 15 Year Low
Traders said that oil prices are being held in check by signs of extremely weak demand in the US, the world’s biggest oil consumer. American crude oil demand in the latest four weeks fell to a 15 year low, US government data had recently showed.
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