Brent crude futures were up 40 cents at $90.78 a barrel by 0032 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 35 cents to $86.78.
A new round of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas in Cairo ended a multi-session rally on Monday, leading Brent to its first decline in five sessions and WTI to its first in seven on the perspective of mitigating geopolitical risks.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that an unspecified date had been set for Israel’s invasion of Gaza’s Rafah enclave, “ending hopes that briefly gripped the market yesterday that tensions geopolitical tensions in the region could ease,” said Tony Sycamore. a market analyst at IG, wrote in a note.
Hamas has rejected the latest ceasefire proposal made by Israel during the Cairo talks, a senior Hamas official also said on Monday.
The market continues to weigh the risk of oil supply disruption. An Iranian response to Israel’s alleged attack on its consulate in Syria “could drag the oil market into conflict, having been largely unchanged since Hamas’ attack on Israel,” ANZ analysts said in a customer rating. Tehran said last week it would take revenge after an airstrike that killed two of its generals and five military advisers in Damascus, although Israel did not claim responsibility for the attack. At the same time, broader fundamentals are supporting prices, ANZ analysts said. Fuel demand in India hit a record high in fiscal 2024, driven by higher consumption of gasoline and jet fuel, data showed on Monday. An improvement in Chinese manufacturing activity announced last week is expected to boost fuel demand.
This week, the market will be watching inflation data due this week from the United States and China for further signals on the economic direction of the world’s two largest oil consumers.
In the Americas, Mexican national oil company Pemex announced it would cut its crude exports by 330,000 barrels per day so it could supply more to domestic refineries, reducing the supply available to U.S. buyers by a third. European and Asian society.
