The suspension of navigation in the Suez Canal raises oil prices

The suspension of the Suez Canal nearly doubled the shipping costs of tankers of petroleum products.

A.F.B.

Oil prices rose, yesterday, by 2%, to rebound due to fears that the floatation of a giant, stranded container tanker that impedes navigation in the Suez Canal may take weeks, which may put pressure on supplies of crude and refined products.

But prices are still heading towards losses, for the third week in a row, as the outlook for demand is negatively affected by new isolation measures in Europe.

Brent crude rose $ 1.18, or 1.9%, to $ 63.13 a barrel, after dropping 3.8% the day before yesterday.

The US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $ 1.25, or 2.1%, to $ 59.81 a barrel, after shedding 4.3% the previous day.

The two benchmarks are on track to incur a weekly loss, following a 6% drop last week.

The Suez Canal Authority said that the operations of tugging and floating the stranded ship will resume after the completion of the dredging, which has been 87% completed.

The company handling the rescue operation added the day before yesterday, that the float of the ship may take weeks.

Of the 39.2 million barrels per day of total crude oil imported by sea in 2020, 1.74 million barrels per day used the canal, according to Kepler to track tanker movements.

In addition, Kepler said, only slightly less than 9% or 1.54 million barrels per day of global refined product imports passed through the Suez Canal.

The suspension of the Suez Canal is causing disruption, which has resulted in the costs of shipping tankers of petroleum products almost doubling this week, and by diverting several ships away from the waterway.

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