Oil prices have hit their highest since late 2014 and JP Morgan says Brent crude could go to $US80 a barrel as US-led strikes on Syria threaten a new period of heightened Middle East conflict and raise the spectre of renewed US sanctions on Iran.
The United States, Britain and France on Saturday morning launched
military strikes against "chemical weapons-type targets" in Syria, in
retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack in the town of Douma which
killed at least 60 people on April 7.
Talk of the US-led strikes helped ramp up tension in oil markets leading into the weekend, where geopolitical tensions had already pushed prices higher. In the middle of last week Saudi Arabia intercepted three missiles over Riyadh, reportedly fired by Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen and targeting national oil company Saudi Aramco's assets.
In response, the international benchmark Brent crude oil price lifted 8.6 per cent last week to hit $US72.58 a barrel on Friday night, the highest since November 2014. Asian trade on Monday morning will offer the first glimpse of whether prices will be even higher.
Talk of the US-led strikes helped ramp up tension in oil markets leading into the weekend, where geopolitical tensions had already pushed prices higher. In the middle of last week Saudi Arabia intercepted three missiles over Riyadh, reportedly fired by Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen and targeting national oil company Saudi Aramco's assets.
In response, the international benchmark Brent crude oil price lifted 8.6 per cent last week to hit $US72.58 a barrel on Friday night, the highest since November 2014. Asian trade on Monday morning will offer the first glimpse of whether prices will be even higher.
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