LONDON: Oil prices were on track for gains of six per cent on a week-on-week basis amid persistent tensions in the Middle East after Israel rejected a ceasefire offer from Ha­mas, and tightness in refined products markets that was driven by refining outages.

Brent crude futures were up 35 cents, or 0.4pc, on the day to $81.98 a barrel by 11:49am EST (1649 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 41 cents or 0.5pc, to $76.63 a barrel. US crude was $1 higher earlier in the session.

Oil futures are into their fifth straight day of gains, buoyed this week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a Hamas ceasefire proposal on Wednesday.

Israeli forces continued deadly air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday, after the bombing of the southern border city of Rafah on Thursday helped send oil prices up by around 3pc in the previous session.

“With the words that, ‘no part of the Gaza Strip would be immune from Israel’s offensive’, it was not hard for oil participants to conclude that without even a passing regard for peace, there was not enough conflict-premium priced in,” said John Evans, an analyst at PVM.

Crude futures were also supported by strength in gasoline and diesel prices as significant US refinery downtime, both planned and unplanned, tightened product markets.

Gasoline futures rose 9.1pc in the week to $2.33 per gallon while heating oil futures increased by 11.3pc to $2.94 per gallon.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2024