Oil price is rising in early trade Monday settling at $70.70 to a barrel, the highest level since Nov. 2018 and driven up by OPEC’s ongoing supply cuts, US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela and strong US jobs data.
Oil has also been helped by fears of supply disruptions in Libya as a result of the fighting in the country.
The US on Friday targeted oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba in its latest round of sanctions to pressure the government of President Nicolas Maduro, aiming to choke off a crucial supply of crude to the Communist island.
The US Treasury imposed sanctions on 34 vessels owned or operated by Venezuelan state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A, or PDVSA, and also on two companies and a vessel that delivered oil to Cuba in February and March.
In the meantime, Saudi Arabia’s threat to sell its oil in currencies other than the dollar if the US enacts anti-OPEC legislation is an empty one traders say, but it illustrates the extent of tensions between the two governments over oil prices.
Senior Saudi officials have discussed a plan to stop invoicing oil in dollars and switch to other currencies if the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (NOPEC), recently introduced in Congress, becomes law.
