Oil Pushes Higher as Traders Prepare for Iran Sanctions

Investing.com – Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday, as upcoming U.S. sanctions against Iran continued to increase the cost of oil.

West Texas surged 1.05% to $66.11 a barrel as of 10:30 AM ET (14:30 GMT). Meanwhile futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., increased 0.57% to $72.62.

Oil prices have been driven higher in the past few months as demand for oil outsrips supply and upcoming U.S. sanctions against Iran have also supported prices. The financial sanctions against Iran were introduced this month by the U.S. government and will target the petroleum sector of Iran in November.

The European Union is expected to stop buying oil from Iran. French oil giant Total, one of the largest European buyers of Iranian oil, plans to halt imports. However China has said it would continue buying large volumes of Iranian oil despite U.S. pressure.

A drop of crude supply is expected in November when the U.S. sanctions against Iran will take effect. U.S. offered on Monday 11 million barrels of crude from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve for delivery from Oct. 1 to Nov. 31 to prevent a huge jump in oil prices once the sanctions kick in.

Meanwhile the oil rig count in the U.S. was unchanged last week, according to the Baker Hughes services firm as weaker oil prices stalled the pace of U.S. production growth.

Still, the oil rig count in North America has jumped in the last two years hitting its highest level since March 2015..

In other energy trading, rose 0.47% at $2.0209 a gallon, while was up 0.86% to $2.1319 a gallon. inched up 0.68% to $2.961 per million British thermal units.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.