Following a more than $1 decline on Monday, oil prices stabilized Tuesday as Washington increased efforts to stop an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and hoped to reduce sanctions on Venezuela, a major producer.
As of 0632 GMT, Brent oil futures were up 16 cents at $89.81 per barrel, while WTI in the U.S. was down 1 cent at $86.65 per barrel.
According to several sources, Tuesday’s long-postponed discussions between Venezuela’s government and opposition are expected to continue. President Nicolas Maduro said that the talks will help the forthcoming 2024 election.
Since 2019, the United States has placed restrictions on oil shipments from Venezuela, an OPEC member, as retaliation for Maduro’s government’s handling of elections it deemed fraudulent due to human rights abuses in 2018.
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.
On Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will visit Israel as that nation gets ready to intensify an attack against Hamas terrorists that has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and stoked concerns of a wider clash with Iran.
The dangers still exist, and Iran’s foreign minister has warned that it may soon be unavoidable for the conflict to spread to other fronts, according to a note published on Tuesday by ANZ Research.
The Biden administration has been looking for methods to improve oil flow to international markets to lower high prices. However, due to a lack of recent investments, any actual growth in Venezuela’s oil production would take time.
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