Oil prices rose on Tuesday as the Middle East crisis and a Libyan supply outage reduced the previous day's heavy losses. At their intra-day peaks both benchmarks were up by more than $2 a barrel but prices have since cooled. The Israeli military has said its fight against Hamas will continue through 2024, worrying markets that the conflict could grow into a regional crisis that could disrupt Middle Eastern oil supplies. Brent and WTI incurred 3 per cent and 4 per cent losses respectively on Monday after sharp cuts to Saudi Arabia's official selling prices (OSP), prompting both supply and demand concerns. Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch added that the OSP cut "indicates a weakening of demand for oil in the three most important demand regions".
