Chronology of world oil market events

When Israel’s war against Hamas began a year ago, concern about the economic impact it could have on the wider global economy focused on the price of oil.

In a single day, the cost of crude oil jumped by 5%, following a speech from US President Joe Biden, who suggested that Israel might target Iranian oil facilities. As a result, the price of OPEC oil climbed to 74.90 dollars per barrel, while Brent futures reached 77.54 dollars per barrel.

Oil prices have surged due to renewed concerns about the Middle East conflict. Brent crude futures increased by 0.32% to 90.80 USD per barrel, while American WTI crude rose by 0.3% to 86.50 USD per barrel. This comes amid fears of an Iranian strike on Israel following verbal threats by Iran in response to an Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have agreed to extend their voluntary oil production cuts through the end of this year, trimming 1.3 million barrels of crude out of the global market and boosting energy prices.

The dual announcements from Riyadh and Moscow pushed benchmark Brent crude above $90 a barrel in trading yesterday, a price unseen in the market since November.

Riyadh on June 4 announced a fresh oil output cut following a meeting of major producers aiming to prop up prices despite fears of a recession.

The meeting of the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) headed by Saudi Arabia and its 10 partners, led by Russia, saw some tough negotiations.

The group of oil-producing countries agreed on Sunday to extend oil production curbs through 2024 as petrol prices remained stable, according to "The Hill".

Oil prices fell nearly 1 percent in early European trade, erasing yesterday's gains on concerns about the viability of the bipartisan US debt ceiling deal and mixed messages from top oil producers ahead of the OPEC+ meeting later in the week.

Capping the price of Russian oil, an approach G7 members said Friday they want to pursue "urgently," would be an unprecedented move and one which some analysts say could backfire.        

OPEC told the European Union that current and future sanctions against Russia could lead to one of the worst shocks in oil supplies and it will be impossible to replace these volumes, while the oil cartel has signaled that it will not increase yields, Reuters reported.

Turkey's total oil imports increased by 42.4 percent on an annual basis to 4.03 million tons in December 2021, according to data released by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) yesterday.

Crude oil imports, the category with the highest oil import volume, rose by 45.9 percent in December to 2.98 million tons, the energy watchdog said in its monthly report.