Oil Prices near 4-Year Highs on Looming Supply Crunch Fears

Investing.com – Oil prices were trading within reach of four year highs on Tuesday amid fears over a looming supply crunch after global producers decided against any increase in production despite calls from U.S. President Donald Trump for action to cool prices.

Global benchmark futures were up 0.72% at $81.08 a barrel by 08:44 AM ET (12:44 GMT). Prices hit a high of $81.48 on Monday, the most since November 2014.

for November were up 0.46% at $72.42, near Monday’s high of $72.74, the strongest level since the week ended July 8.

Oil has rallied amid worries over Trump’s plans to reduce Iranian crude shipments to zero through sanctions slated for Nov. 4.

A meeting on Sunday of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC members, including top producer Russia, ended with no formal recommendation for any additional supply boost to offset falling supply from Iran.

Trump has also said he would sell supplies from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, if necessary, to curb rising prices at the pump.

Khalid al-Falih, energy minister of Saudi Arabia, the kingpin of OPEC, rebuffed Trump’s calls on Sunday, saying: “I do not influence prices.”

“The real reason they refused to increase could be that they don’t have enough spare capacity to bring on line quickly,” Phil Flynn, energy analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said, referring to the OPEC decision.

Iran’s OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili was quoted by Reuters as saying that Saudi Arabia and Russia “got prices higher and they are going to get them higher still” and “cannot deliver the extra capacity that they claim”.

In other energy trading, rose 0.17% to $2.0507 per gallon, while rose 0.64% to $2.30 a gallon. were up 0.33% to $3.039.

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