Oil Prices Retreat from Five-Month Highs

ARK News.. Oil prices retreated from their highest levels in five months as traders weighed renewed fighting in the Middle East against signs that supplies from the region were remaining close to pre-war levels.

According to media reports, Brent crude traded near $108 a barrel after jumping 4% on Friday, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude reached around $100 a barrel.

Despite the tensions, oil supplies continue to flow out of the region. The United States said its forces had helped escort shipments carrying 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz during the previous week.

Images captured by Sentinel satellites as part of the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation program showed 10 oil tankers docked at loading berths at the Red Sea ports of Yanbu and Al-Muajjiz on October 15. This was up from three tankers on October 10 and five on October 5, the dates of the two previous satellite passes over the area.

The images showed seven tankers, including three very large crude carriers, docked at Yanbu’s loading terminal on October 15. Yanbu is the main outlet for Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline. Another three tankers were seen at Al-Muajjiz, located to the south.

The increase in oil loadings from the Red Sea followed the resumption of crude flows through the East-West Pipeline to Yanbu, with throughput reaching 5.8 million barrels per day, according to an announcement by Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on October 6.

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