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Zurich (awp) – After jumping the day before thanks to the weakening of the American dollar against the euro, in particular, oil prices continued to rise on Friday. The fall in the greenback came on top of the recovery in demand, the drop in inventories and the disruptions in supply to boost the price of black gold.
At around 8:15 a.m. on Friday, a barrel of US oil WTI for March delivery was trading at $90.76, up 0.53%, after crossing the $90 threshold on Thursday evening for the first time since the winter of 2014, supported by the fall of the dollar and the winter which is becoming biting in the United States, at 90.27 dollars (+2.27%).
The barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in April took for its part 0.3% to 91.37 dollars, after having reached the previous evening 91.11 dollars, an increase of 1.83%. Since the beginning of the year, the price of Brent has jumped 17.01%, the annual increase reaching nearly 60%.
Goldman Sachs expects oil to hit $100 a barrel this year, with geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and freezing weather in the United States supporting prices. On Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies in the OPEC+ agreement agreed to increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day in March, as planned.
But analysts increasingly doubt that all of its members will be able to meet their production targets. As demand picks up, inventory declines and supply disruptions, cyberattacks have targeted port facilities in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, prompting judicial authorities to investigate, including suspicions of “extortion” to the detriment of German operators in the oil sector.
According to a specialized broker based in Rotterdam (Netherlands), this series of hacks, which began several days ago, primarily concerns oil terminals, which disrupts deliveries in several major ports. The police cooperation agency Europol said it offered its support “to the German authorities” about this hack.
The latter targets Hamburg, the large port city in northern Germany, as well as at least six oil terminals in Belgian and Dutch ports, according to the Belgian daily De Morgen, which cited Antwerp and Amsterdam in particular. In Germany, the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office announced that it had opened an investigation against X for “extortion” after the cyberattack on oil terminals.
After a quiet start to the day on Thursday, in the context of an OPEC+ decision the day before without surprise, prices soared in the afternoon following the fall of the dollar against the euro. The single currency was boosted by the change in tone of the European Central Bank (ECB), which, for the first time, opened the door to a possible increase in its key rate this year.
On Friday morning, the European currency was still appreciating against the dollar, with one euro worth 1.1456 dollars, after having risen sharply the day before to 1.1434 dollars.
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