Oil prices have stabilize in early trade

17 Oct 2023 , 09:52 AM

Following a more than $1 decline on Monday, oil prices stabilized on Tuesday on expectations that the United States will relax its sanctions against producer Venezuela and as Washington stepped up efforts to stop an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Brent crude futures were up 3 cents at $89.68 per barrel, while WTI was down 11 cents at $86.55 per barrel in the United States.

Tuesday’s long-postponed discussions between Venezuela’s government and opposition are expected to resume, according to several sources. President Nicolas Maduro claimed that the talks will help the forthcoming 2024 election.

Since 2019, the United States has imposed sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports as retaliation for Maduro’s administration’s handling of elections in 2018 that Washington deemed fraudulent due to abuses of human rights. Venezuela is a member of OPEC.

On worries that the Middle East war would worsen, both oil benchmarks rose last week, with global benchmark Brent rising 7.5%, the most since February.

In order to lower high prices, the Biden administration has been looking for ways to improve the flow of oil to international markets. However, due to a lack of recent investments, any actual growth in Venezuela’s oil production will take time.

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