Oil Holds Gain as Traders Focus on Venezuela, Black Sea Outage
(Bloomberg) -- Oil held a gain as the market watched for US President Donald Trump’s next steps on Venezuela, and assessed the fallout from damage to a crude export terminal in the Black Sea.
Brent was near $63 a barrel after rising 1.3% in the previous session, while West Texas Intermediate traded above $59. Trump held a meeting on Venezuela on Monday evening in the US, as American forces mass near the country and the president amps up his rhetoric against Nicolas Maduro’s government.
The simmering tensions are keeping the market on edge and injecting some risk premium into oil prices, partially offsetting concerns over a swelling surplus. The geopolitical risks extend to Russia and the Black Sea, where Ukraine has carried out repeated strikes on the OPEC+ producer’s energy facilities.
That includes a recent attack on a mooring at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal, the largest outlet for Kazakhstan’s oil exports. CPC said “any further operations are impossible” at the mooring, reiterating previous comments.
“The market tends to fade Venezuela headlines, but disruptions in the Black Sea stick longer because they affect actual flows,” said Haris Khurshid, the chief investment officer at Karobaar Capital LP in Chicago. However, the “glut is still the anchor going into next year,” he added.
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