(New York) Oil prices did an about-turn on Tuesday at the end of the session, on a market alerted by information relating to Russian missiles which would have fallen in Poland.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in January, gained 0.77%, to close at 93.86 dollars.
As for the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI), with maturity in December, it took 1.22%, to 86.92 dollars.
“It’s the reaction to reports that Russian missiles have fallen on Poland,” explained Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates to justify this sudden reversal.
A US intelligence official, on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that Russian missiles had killed two people on Polish territory.
Several Polish media have linked it to explosions in Przewodow, a village a few kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki convened a national security council in the evening, the government spokesman referring to a “crisis situation”.
“This information has put the oil market on edge, because it already sees how this could lead to a large escalation of hostilities between Russia and NATO”, of which Poland is a member, unlike Ukraine , explained Andy Lipow.
Prices were also supported by the announcement by Hungarian energy group MOL that crude oil deliveries to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline had been temporarily suspended.
According to several media, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also convened a defense council to discuss this suspension as well as information relating to Russian missiles that fell in Ukraine.
These developments have reversed the market trend, which has been falling sharply so far. Earlier, the WTI had dropped up to 2.10%.
Operators had initially reacted badly to the reduction by the International Energy Agency (IEA) of its demand growth forecasts, due to “economic headwinds”.
The IEA now expects demand to increase by 1.6 million barrels per day next year, against 1.7 million forecast so far.
The cut came just hours after a similar revision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which also revised down 100,000 barrels per day of the rise in demand in 2023.