Oil prices rise to $60.65 a barrel after reports of Iranian tanker attack
Oil prices rose about 2% on Friday after Iranian media said a state-owned oil tanker had been attacked in the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia, pushing Brent crude above $60 a barrel for the first time this month.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 gained $1.31, or 2.2%, to $60.41 a barrel by 11:27 a.m. EDT (1527 GMT), after earlier reaching a session high of $60.65 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures rose 97 cents, or 1.8%, to $54.52 a barrel. It earlier hit $54.87 a barrel.
The gains were tempered by the International Energy Agency’s forecast for weakened demand in 2020. Still, Brent and WTI were headed for their first weekly increases in three weeks. Brent was on track to rise 3.4% for the week, while WTI was set to rise 3.3%.
