U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures climbed as much as 2.9 percent to $65.87 a barrel, its highest since Oct. 30.U.S. "Peter Kiernan, lead energy analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said "a severe loss in (Iranian) volumes will put pressure on the supply side, given the political uncertainty currently blighting other oil exporters, such as Venezuela and Libya. "Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest exporter of crude oil and OPEC's de-facto leader. "If there is a time for the U.S. to be able to take a hard line it is now, with the Saudis having over 2 million barrels (per day) of spare capacity," said Tony Nunan, oil risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo.ASIA HIT HARDESTAn end to the exemptions would hit Asian buyers the hardest. "Japan is another close U.S. ally in Asia that is also a traditionally significant buyer of Iranian oil.Takayuki Nogami, chief economist at Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) said the end of the sanction waivers "is not a good policy for Trump.

Source: Economic Times April 22, 2019 03:45 UTC