Oil held steady on Monday amid potential supply disruptions from intensifying protests in Iran, as efforts to resume Venezuelan oil exports stabilized prices.<\/p>\n
Olga Rolenko | Moment | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Oil\u00a0prices\u00a0edged higher on\u00a0Monday\u00a0as escalating protests in Iran sparked concerns\u00a0about supplies\u00a0from the OPEC producer, while efforts\u00a0to resume\u00a0oil\u00a0exports from Venezuela and expectations the market will be oversupplied this year limited gains.<\/p>\n
Brent crude futures<\/a> climbed 5 cents\u00a0to $63.39\u00a0a barrel by 0433\u00a0GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude<\/a>\u00a0was at $59.16\u00a0a barrel, up 4\u00a0cents.<\/p>\n Both contracts rose more than 3% last week to clinch their biggest weekly rise since October as Iran’s clerical establishment\u00a0intensified\u00a0its crackdown on the biggest demonstrations since 2022.<\/p>\n While a premium has formed in\u00a0oil\u00a0prices in recent days, the market is still underestimating the geopolitical risk from a wider Iran conflict that may impact\u00a0oil\u00a0shipments at the Strait of Hormuz, Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee.<\/p>\n “The market is saying show me the disruption to supply before materially responding,” he added.<\/p>\n The civil unrest in Iran has\u00a0killed\u00a0more than 500 people, a rights group said on Sunday.<\/p>\n “There have also been calls for workers in the\u00a0oil\u00a0industry to down tools amid the protests,” ANZ analysts led by Daniel Hynes said in a note.<\/p>\n “The situation puts at least 1.9 million barrels per day of\u00a0oil\u00a0exports at risk of disruption,” they added.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if force is used on protesters.<\/p>\n The president is expected to meet senior advisers on Tuesday to\u00a0discuss options\u00a0for Iran, a U.S. official told Reuters on Sunday.<\/p>\n Still, Venezuela is expected to resume\u00a0oil\u00a0exports soon following the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro as Trump said last week the government in Caracas is set to turn over as much as 50 million barrels of sanctioned\u00a0oil\u00a0to the United States.<\/p>\n That has set off a race among\u00a0oil\u00a0companies\u00a0to find tankers and assemble operations to ship the crude safely from vessels and dilapidated Venezuelan ports, four sources familiar with the operations said.<\/p>\n Trafigura\u00a0said in a meeting with the White House on Friday that its first vessel should load in the next week.<\/p>\n Oil\u00a0prices are expected to stay range bound unless\u00a0there is\u00a0a clear demand revival or a meaningful supply disruption, said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova.<\/p>\n She added that\u00a0oil\u00a0futures are increasingly pricing in an oversupply narrative as market moves into 2026.<\/p>\n