Oil prices extend gains on Iran sanctions concerns
Xinhua,May 05, 2018 Adjust font size:
NEW YORK, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices continued to climb on Friday on the potential new U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Oil prices have been supported recently as the Trump administration said it would withdraw the United States from the nuclear deal by May 12 if it cannot reach an agreement with European partners to toughen the terms of the accord.
Iran's foreign minister said Thursday that U.S. demands to change its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers were unacceptable, according to CNBC.
Investors worried that if sanctions were reinstated, that could contribute to tighter global oil inventories.
On the data front, oil service giant Baker Hughes reported on Friday that its weekly count of U.S. oil rigs rose for a fifth consecutive week. The number of rigs operating in American oil fields rose by 9 during last week to a total of 834.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for June delivery added 1.29 U.S. dollar to settle at 69.72 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery increased 1.25 dollar to close at 74.87 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem