Oil prices rise 7% in three days to 4-month high in anticipation of attack on Iran

After President Trump called on Iran on social media to make a deal with the US to avoid military intervention, oil prices accelerated their growth and rose by 7% in three days.

An attack on Iran, OPEC's fourth-largest producer, could disrupt crude oil supplies and halt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world's oil passes.

Over the last three sessions, March Brent crude futures rose by 7.6% to $70.6/barrel (+10% for the week, +15% for the month), and US WTI crude futures rose by 7.9% to $65.4/barrel (+10%, +13%).

However, today oil prices have already fallen by 1.5-1.7% from yesterday's highs amid a collapse in stock markets, gold, silver, and cryptocurrency prices.

According to Vortexa, oil stocks on tankers idle for at least 7 days were 113.3 million barrels as of January 23, indicating problems with the sale of sanctioned Russian oil. Russian sellers are increasing oil discounts for India to sell batches that refineries have begun to refuse due to US sanctions, which is why prices for individual batches have fallen to $22-25/barrel, the Financial Times reports.

Speculative increases in oil prices usually support commodity prices, but they are currently stable as markets expect a pullback in quotes and do not believe that Trump would dare to attack Iran, provoking an open war in the region.