Oil extends gains on Kurdish supply risks and banking relief

Crude oil prices extended gains on Tuesday with Brent crude futures rising by 0.4% to $78.44 and West Texas Intermediate US crude up 0.4% at $73.07. The price rise followed an Iraqi arbitration decision, which confirmed that if the country wished to ship oil, it required Baghdad’s consent. If this results in a protracted outage, Barclays estimated prices could increase. Meanwhile, positive news regarding banking and signs of China’s recovering demand also contributed to the upward pressure on prices.