Oil Drops as Iraqi Insurgency Slows

Brent crude fell for a second day on signs violence in Iraq may not affect the nation’s oil supply. West Texas Intermediate dropped amid speculation that gains to a nine-month high last week were excessive.

Futures slid as much as 0.7 percent in London. Kurdish troops are defending Kirkuk, Iraq’s fourth-biggest oilfield, against Islamist militants after deploying outside their semi-autonomous region in the country’s north. Exports from Iraq’s Basrah oil terminal on the Persian Gulf are set to climb in July, preliminary cargo data compiled by Bloomberg show. The nation’s output hasn’t been hurt by the violence, the International Energy Agency said today.

Brent for August settlement dropped as much as 78 cents to $112.16 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange and was at $112.73 at 1:28 p.m. London time. The volume of all futures traded was about 50 percent above the 100-day average for the time of day. Prices are up 1.8 percent this year.

via Bloomberg

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.