Oil prices hit a three-week high on Monday as rising Chinese imports and expectations of fresh U.S. sanctions on Russia buoyed market sentiment.
Brent crude rose by 58 cents, or 0.8%, to $70.94 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained 59 cents, or 0.9%, reaching $69.04 by 09:00 GMT.
The rally was driven by increased crude imports from China — up 7.4% year-on-year in June to 12.14 million barrels per day — as well as investor anticipation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned “major statement” on Russia. The statement follows Trump’s recent pledge to supply Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine.
UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said both China's import figures and U.S. geopolitical positioning were supporting oil markets. Meanwhile, a bipartisan U.S. bill advancing in Congress, aimed at imposing tighter sanctions on Moscow, and the European Union's forthcoming 18th sanctions package — expected to include a lower price cap on Russian oil — added to supply-side concerns.
However, analysts at J.P. Morgan warned that with China’s storage levels near peak, some inventories may shift to visible Western hubs, potentially putting downward pressure on prices in the longer term.
Last week, Brent and WTI recorded gains of 3% and 2.2%, respectively, following an IEA report suggesting that the global oil market may be tighter than headline figures indicate. Traders are also closely watching developments in ongoing U.S.-EU trade and tariff talks that could further impact global energy flows.
More than 537,000 trees were planted across Turkmenistan during a nationwide greening campaign as part of the autumn planting season. T...
Peace is Armenia’s only reliable guarantee of security, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said in comments in Dublin, where he also...
Hungarian authorities have recovered nearly $20 million in cash hidden in buildings and buried in forests as part of a bribery investigation into M...
Iran’s Assembly of Experts has backed withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and overhauling the country’s defence doctrine, calling both steps essential to national security and deterrence.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration lifted a nationwide ground stop on Friday (13 November) after a communications failure at air traffic control centres caused chaos at airports and triggered the longest nationwide shutdown since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
More than 30 people have been taken to hospital after a cargo ship collided with a passenger cruise docked on the Mississippi River in New Orleans on Friday (13 November).
Microsoft struggled to restore its services on Friday after a major outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot across the United States and Asia-Pacific region.
Kazakhstan-linked hackers stole thousands of national security documents from Tajikistan, a cybersecurity company has said.
Hungarian authorities have recovered nearly $20 million in cash hidden in buildings and buried in forests as part of a bribery investigation into Miklós Seszták, a former minister under ex-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to hold a historic trilateral meeting in Shenzhen on 19 November. The White House says the talks will focus on nuclear arms reductions, with Iran also on the agenda.
U.S. negotiators floated the idea of Ukraine withdrawing from the eastern Donbas region in exchange for NATO membership, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
China is taking its space technology ambitions beyond its borders, with a major deal to build a network of 20 artificial intelligence-powered satellites for Oman.
Europe will send a team of diplomats to Ukraine peace talks rather than a single envoy, EU leaders agreed on Friday at the end of a summit in Dublin.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment