Fuel prices ease as Mideast truce holds

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

Global oil prices are affected with the Israeli attacks of Palestine. AFP photo

Oil prices fell on Nov. 23 as a cease-fire agreement between Israel and the militant Hamas group that stopped week long fighting in the Gaza Strip continued to hold.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 28 cents to $87.10 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 63 cents to finish at $87.38 per barrel on Nov. 22. Markets were closed on Nov. 23 in the U.S. for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Israel launched an offensive on Nov. 14 to halt rocket fire from Gaza, unleashing some 1,500 airstrikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Hamas and other Gaza militants showered Israel with just as many rockets. The eight days of fighting killed 161 Palestinians and six Israelis, The Associated Press reported. Other agencies reported 163 Palestinian causalities.

“I think it’s a bit of reaction to the cease-fire in the Middle East, said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. Oil prices are “more or less flat-lining, a little bit up and down within a range,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying. Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, fell 33 cents to $110.53 a barrel in London.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s oil exports and revenues were slightly higher in October, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said on Nov. 23. Iraq exported 81.3 million barrels of oil in October for an average of about 2.62 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with about 2.6 million bpd in September.