Oil prices continued to rise during trading on Thursday, October 3, with increasing tensions in the Middle East, and amid fears that they would affect crude supplies.
In terms of trading, Brent crude futures rose by about 1.3% to $74.88 per barrel. US crude futures also rose by 1.5% to $71.13 per barrel.
Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in its largest-ever attack on the Jewish state. Israel and the United States have vowed to respond to the attack, which could escalate conflict in the region.
The American news website Axios reported on Wednesday, citing Israeli officials, that Israel's response could include targeting Iranian oil production facilities, among other strategic sites.
Iran's oil production rose to a six-year high of 3.7 million barrels per day in August, analysts at ANZ Bank said in a note.
Meanwhile, a meeting of senior OPEC+ ministers ended with the oil production policy remaining unchanged, including a plan to start increasing production from December, and also stressing the need for some members to increase cuts to compensate for excess production.
On the US inventories front, the Energy Information Administration data showed that inventories rose by 3.9 million barrels to 417 million barrels in the week ending September 27, which wiped out some of the gains achieved during the week.
