Oil prices spike due to Middle East tensions

Shafaq News/ The price of Brent crude rose due to tensions in the Middle East, which kept investors cautious to change its downward trend seen earlier in trading, continuing losses suffered in the previous session after Saudi Arabia said it would restore production by the end of September.

Prices fell 6 % on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister said that the kingdom was able to bring crude supplies back to pre-weekend levels on two facilities, halting 5 % of world oil production.

But losses stopped on Wednesday after the United States said it believed that the attack on the two Saudi oil facilities was launched from southwestern Iran. But Iran has denied involvement.

Brent crude futures were up 41 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $ 64.61 a barrel by 0652 GMT, after falling 6.5 percent in the previous session.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 7 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $ 59.41 a barrel after losing 5.7 percent on Tuesday.

Energy Minister ,Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Tuesday that oil production would average 9.89 million barrels per day in September and October, and that the world's top crude exporter would ensure customers were provided with full oil supplies this month.

Aramco has told a number of Asian refineries it will supply them with full crude oil allocations on October but with some changes.