Oil prices jump to 9-month high after Iran cuts supply
Gas
Oil prices jumped to a ninemonth high above $105 a barrel on Monday after Iran said it halted crude exports to Britain and France in an escalation of a dispute over the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program.
But the jump in oil prices did not translate into a spike in local gas prices, at least not on Monday. The average price of regular-grade gasoline in the Dayton area actually fell a few cents per gallon after climbing 20 cents or more during the weekend.
Daytongasprices.com showed the average price early Monday evening at $3.44 a gallon.
That price, according to the website that uses spotters to track prices, was down more than 2 cents from Sunday, and 8 cents below the national average of $3.52 a gallon.
By early afternoon Monday in Europe, benchmark March crude was up $1.91 to $105.15 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the day, it rose to $105.21, the highest since May. The contract rose 93 cents to settle at $103.24 per barrel in New York on Friday.
Markets in the United States were closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.
Iran’s oil ministry said Sunday it stopped crude shipments to British and French companies in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran’s crucial fuel exports. They include a freeze of the country’s central bank assets and an oil embargo to begin in July.
Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi had warned earlier this month that Tehran could cut off oil exports to “hostile” European nations. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran’s oil exports.
The EU sanctions, along with other punitive measures imposed by the U.S., are part of Western efforts to derail Iran’s disputed nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran denies the charges, and says its program is for peaceful purposes.
Analysts said Iran’s announcement would likely have minimal impact on supplies, because only about 3 percent of France’s oil consumption is from Iranian sources, while Britain had not imported oil from the Iran in six months.
“The price rise is more a reflection of concerns about the further escalation in tensions between Iran and the West,” said commodity analyst Caroline Bain of the Economist Intelligence Unit. “Banning the tiny quantities of exports ... involves very little risk for Iran — indeed quite the opposite, it ... leads to a higher global oil price, which is something Iran is very keen to encourage,” Bain said.