Oil Heads for Weekly Rise on Venezuela Blockade, Nigeria Strike
(Bloomberg) — Oil headed for the biggest weekly gain since late October as traders tracked a partial US blockade of crude shipments from Venezuela and a military strike by Washington against a militant group in Nigeria.
Global benchmark Brent traded above $62 a barrel, rising nearly 3% this week, while West Texas Intermediate was over $58. On Venezuela, a sanctioned tanker pursued by US forces turned away from the South American nation, as the Trump administration piled up pressure.
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The White House has ordered commanders to concentrate for the next two months on quarantining Venezuelan oil, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person, who requested anonymity, said US forces were focused almost exclusively on the blockade, rather than military options.
Brent crude remains on track for the biggest annual decline since 2020 with a 17% slide. The drop has been driven by expectations for a surplus, with virtually all of the world’s major crude traders foreseeing a global glut next year after producers in and outside OPEC+ increased supplies. Still, the intensifying geopolitical flareups have helped keep a floor under prices.
Adding to the global tensions, President Donald Trump said that the US launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against Islamic State targets in Northwest Nigeria, with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatening of more to come. The country, an OPEC member, produced about 1.5 million barrels a day in November, according to data from the group.
“Oil prices have been receiving support from strong US macro data and geopolitical instability over the past week,” said Kirill Bakhtin, senior oil and gas analyst at Moscow-based BCS Financial Group. “As no new US stats are scheduled in the coming days, we expect a slight decline in prices going forward unless politics continues to weigh in.”
Commodities including crude also had support from a weakening US currency, a shift that makes raw materials cheaper for most buyers. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index has shed more then 0.8% this week.
In Europe, meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he agreed to meet with Trump in the near future, according to a post on Telegram. That followed a “very good conversation” with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, aiming toward an end of Russia’s war.