Investing.com — Oil prices fell sharply Monday as last weekend’s Israeli attack on Iran bypassed oil and nuclear facilities, making future energy supply disruptions less likely.
At 08:50 ET (12:50 GMT), the stock was down 5.9% at $71.14 per barrel, while down 6.3% to $67.27 per barrel.
Both contracts were close to their weakest levels since early October.
Israeli attack on Iran avoids oil and nuclear sites
Israel launched an attack on several Iranian military sites on Saturday, but avoided the country’s major oil production and nuclear facilities.
Iran downplayed the impact of the attack but still threatened retaliation.
The Israeli attack put to rest concerns about a major escalation of the long-running conflict in the Middle East, potentially disrupting oil supplies from the oil-rich region.
This idea has boosted crude oil prices over the past month, especially after Iran attacked Israel in early October.
But despite Israel showing some restraint against Iran, the broader conflict in the Middle East still continued as Israel continued its offensive against Hamas and Hezbollah.
“It’s clear that if we see any de-escalation, fundamentals could once again dictate the direction of prices. And with a market surplus in 2025, this would mean oil prices are likely to remain under pressure,” ING analysts said. a note.
There has been a barrage of economic data this week
In addition to the conflict in the Middle East, the focus this week is on a slew of key economic figures that provide further clues about global oil demand.
Data on the gross domestic product of the and US economies is expected in the coming days, with the data – the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge and widely watched monthly figures – also due later this week.
data from China – the world’s biggest oil importer – will be released later this week, offering more clues for the country after it unveiled a series of major stimulus measures over the past month.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this article.)
