Brent Surges above $50 on Vaccine Hopes and Oil-Tanker Explosion near Saudi Arabia

Oil prices made another hike on Monday with a gain of 1.50% in response to vaccine optimism and hopes for higher demand after a report of an oil tanker explosion off the Saudi Arabian port city.

 

As of 15:32 local time in Thailand on Monday, Brent returned to trade above $50 with a gain of $0.71/bbl or 1.42% to trade at $50.68/bbl. Meanwhile, WTI rose $0.64/bbl or 1.37% to $47.21/bbl.

 

Aside from the optimism from coronavirus vaccine hopes, the oil prices were also buoyed by the report of an explosion of an oil tanker off the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah earlier today in what was expected to be an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The oil tanker belongs to Singapore-flagged BW Rhine. The tanker loaded about 60,000 tonnes of gasoline from Yanbu port on December 6, according to shipping data on Refinitiv. The tanker is currently 84-percent full, according to its draft.