By Georgina McCartney <\/p>\n
HOUSTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Oil futures settled down by almost $2 a barrel on Tuesday, though prices remain near six-month highs due to the disruption of shipping around the Middle East, and an agreement to end the US-Israeli \u200cwar with Iran remains elusive. <\/p>\n
Brent crude futures settled down $1.93, or 1.67%, at $113.88 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude settled down $1.86, \u200cor 1.83%, at $99.90. <\/p>\n
Iranian Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Tuesday, a day after holding talks with representatives of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. <\/p>\n
State \u200bmedia said Khamenei had emphasized the importance of pursuing Iran’s interests and maintaining its conditions for ending the war. <\/p>\n
The four countries agreed to continue talks with a view to strengthening cooperation in peace and security, Iranian state media said. <\/p>\n
The outlook for peace remains uncertain as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis renewed attacks on key oil producer Saudi Arabia. The Houthis said on Tuesday that they had struck Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery, the biggest in \u200cthe kingdom, with a ballistic missile. <\/p>\n
“Continued Houthi attacks \u2060on Saudi Arabia and the expanding military presence in the Gulf are keeping supply risks in place, even as diplomatic headlines encourage some of the recent premium to unwind,” said Gelber & Associates analysts in a note. <\/p>\n
October has \u2060been the worst month for attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and nearby waterways, according to data compiled by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank that has tracked maritime security incidents worldwide since 2017. <\/p>\n
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has risen but the number \u200bof \u200bvessel attacks has increased, with risks likely to become more acute if US \u200bnaval support wavers, UBS said. <\/p>\n
Brent prices surged to more \u200cthan $117 a barrel last week, their highest since April, after a wave of Iranian attacks on tankers around the strait. <\/p>\n
UBS said it expects Brent prices to stay elevated near $110 a barrel through the end of the year, an increase from its previous forecast for $100 a barrel at the end of the year. <\/p>\n
“The impression now is that there is a significant risk premium in crude oil prices for the risk that the US\/Israel will attack Iran in the coming weeks,” said SEB analyst Bjarne Schieldrop. <\/p>\n
Investors were also looking for cues from Israel’s election on Tuesday, which could \u200cspell the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s time in office, though polling \u200bsuggested results would be close and that his Likud party could still prevail. <\/p>\n
“The outcome \u200bof today’s parliamentary elections in Israel could also be significant \u200bfor further developments in the war with Iran, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, if re-elected, might attempt to \u200cachieve regime change in Iran,” Commerzbank analysts wrote. <\/p>\n
Crude oil exports \u200bfrom Russia’s Baltic and Black Sea \u200bports were forecast to fall next month as domestic refiners plan to increase their output after the end of maintenance and to produce more diesel to meet the demands of a deal struck this month between Washington and Moscow, two traders said. <\/p>\n
Russian oil \u200brefineries increased crude processing by 25% in the \u200csecond half of October compared to the beginning of the month after persistent Ukrainian drone attacks on the plants ceased, \u200bthree people in the industry told Reuters. <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston, Robert Harvey in London and Anjana Anil \u200bin BengaluruEditing by Joe Bavier, David Goodman, David Gregorio and David Gaffen) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Georgina McCartney HOUSTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Oil futures settled down by almost $2 a barrel on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6638,114,357,184,268,13368,42,4141,13516,9445,2450,8553,9331,43,266,13517,4861,688,5615,13369,13370,5268,13518,270,40,38,41,39,13519],"class_list":["post-658999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-401k","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-economy","tag-finance","tag-financial-information","tag-headlines","tag-investing","tag-investment-tools","tag-investor","tag-market-news","tag-mortgage","tag-mutual-funds","tag-news","tag-personal-finance","tag-quote","tag-real-estate","tag-retirement","tag-stock","tag-stock-research","tag-stock-valuation","tag-stocks","tag-suze-orman","tag-tax","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-track-portfolio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}