Brent Crude hits new high in 2019

The Brent Crude oil prices on Thursday hit US$ 75.6 per barrel, a new high of 2019. But later it dipped with the expectation that major oil producers would raise oil production to fill-up for the shortage caused by tougher US sanctions against Iranian oil exports.

However, the oil prices are unlikely to go down further due to suspension of crude import from Russia by Poland and Germany through the Druzhba pipeline, the world’s longest oil pipeline on account of poor oil quality. Around 7,00,000 barrels a day of the pipeline’s 1 million barrel a day capacity was suspended.

The US government is putting pressure on OPEC nations mainly Saudi Arabia to lift their volunteer production cuts to bridge supply gap arising from tighter Iran sanction. The United States on Monday ended all exemptions from Iran sanctions to eight countries including India, Japan, China South Korea and Turkey, demanding these nations to halt oil imports from Tehran from May or face punitive action.

On Friday, June Brent crude was trading in negative range of US$ 74.26, down by around 0.12 per cent.