(New York) Oil prices fell on Monday, reflecting a certain easing of geopolitical concerns, while the hope of a truce in the Gaza Strip associated with the release of hostages resurfaced on Monday.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in June, fell 1.22% to $88.40.
Its American equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), for delivery the same month, lost 1.45% to $82.63.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, who stopped in Saudi Arabia on Monday before going to Israel on Tuesday, said he “hoped” for a favorable response from Hamas to a proposal that he described as “extraordinarily generous from the from Israel.”
Antony Blinken also reiterated his country’s opposition to an Israeli offensive on the overcrowded town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, which has become a huge refugee camp housing nearly a million and a half Palestinians in poor conditions. catastrophic health conditions.
A meeting was held Monday in Cairo between representatives of Egypt and Qatar – mediator countries with the United States – and Hamas, which must give its response to this proposal negotiated between Israel and Egypt.
“Last week the oil market was going up because there was no progress in the talks and brokers were worried that something bad was going to happen over the weekend,” recalled Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.
“Now that the discussion is underway, the market is giving back its gains,” he told AFP.
“With little other news, the possible cooling” of tensions around the situation in Gaza is leading to a fall in oil prices, attenuating the risk premium, also explained John Evans of PVM Energy.
Prices were not particularly supported by Kyiv’s announcement on Saturday of Ukrainian drone strikes which notably hit two Russian oil refineries in the southern region of Krasnodar during a large-scale night attack.
Russian authorities previously reported a fire at a refinery in the town of Slavyansk-on-Kuban and state media said the facility had partially halted production.
“The Slavyansk refinery has a capacity of around 140,000 barrels per day and is one of the closest facilities to the war zone in eastern Ukraine,” explain DNB Markets analysts.