Oil prices continued their previous week's rise on Monday.
While Brent North Sea oil rose to a three-year high, American crude oil was quoted at a two-month high.
The reasons for the high oil prices are both strong demand and scarce supply.
Christian Siedenbiedel
Editor in business.
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In early trading, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost $ 79.17.
That was $ 1.08 more than Friday.
The price of a barrel of the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose by $ 1.05 to $ 75.03.
On Monday night, the Brent price had risen to $ 79.52, the highest level since October 2018. A barrel of WTI cost up to $ 75.32, the same as it was last in July.
Goldman raises the oil price forecast
The reasons for the rise in oil prices have been the same for weeks: On the demand side, the solid economic recovery from the Corona slump in many places is causing a high demand for crude oil, gasoline and diesel.
However, there is a shortage on the supply side.
It is true that the oil network Opec Plus has been gradually expanding its production for several months.
However, there have recently been weather-related production shortfalls, especially in the United States.
"The current supply deficit is higher than we had expected," write the analysts of the Goldman Sachs bank. Demand is recovering from the effects of the spread of the delta variant of the corona virus faster than expected. Therefore, they trusted Brent a price of 90 by the end of the year instead of $ 80 a barrel.
Petrol and diesel have also become even more expensive.
According to figures from the Clever Tanken internet portal, a liter of diesel last cost 1.442 euros on a national average, while a liter of Super E10 cost 1.584 euros.
In many cities, however, the average price for Super is already over 1.60 euros.