Oil prices climb over concerns on Ukraine and Middle East

Global oil prices rose sharply on Monday, fueled by worries about supply disruption amid the Ukraine crisis and a foiled ballistic missile attack by Al Houthis on the UAE, even as OPEC and its allies struggled to raise output.

Brent crude futures rose 81 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $88.70 a barrel by 0344 GMT, reversing a 0.6 percent loss on Friday, Reuters reported. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 72 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $85.86 a barrel, having fallen 0.5 percent on Friday.

The UAE Ministry of Defence said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM on Monday that it had destroyed two Al Houthi ballistic missiles targeting the Gulf state, without any casualties.

Last week, a suspected drone attack by the Yemeni Al Houthi rebels in the UAE blew up three fuel trucks and killed three people near Abu Dhabi airport. Subsequent concerns about the attacks on UAE sent oil prices to their highest level since October 2014 last week.

Meanwhile, there has been tensions over the Baltics region which might led the US to 

deploy several thousand US troops to NATO allies in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, according to the New York Times.

“Investors remained bullish due to geopolitical risk between Russia and Ukraine as well as in the Middle East, while OPEC+ continued to fail to reach its output target,” Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Securities Co Ltd, told Reuters.

“An expectation for higher heating oil demand in the United States amid cold weather also added to pressure,” he added.

Both Brent and WTI rose for a fifth week in a row last week, gaining around 2 percent, and prices are already up more than 10 percent this year.