LONDON: Crude prices climbed on Monday on concerns about supplies from the Middle East amid the Israel-Gaza conflict and following a pre-weekend explosion on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig, analysts said.
Like stock markets, oil futures won support also from rising prospects that the United States can avoid a return to recession by pulling back from the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and spending cuts, due to take effect on January 1.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, gained $ 1.22 to $ 86.67 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for January delivery gained 72 cents to $ 109.67 a barrel in London midday deals.
“The oil markets are rallying on the possibility of a deal regarding the fiscal cliff and the possibility of no deal between Israel and Hamas,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group.
Israeli air strikes killed 13 Palestinians on Monday, increasing the Gaza death toll to 91 as global efforts to broker a truce to end the worst violence for four years gathered pace.
Price support came also from a blast which rocked a rig operated by Houston-based Black Elk Energy in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, even though it did not cause a spill.
Divers hired by the owner of the rig found one body on Saturday. Two workers have been missing since the accident but Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Vega would not say if the body found is that of one of those two people.
Crude prices gain on Israel-Gaza violence
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