Crude Oil Bounces Back As Earthquake In Turkey Creates Supply Concerns

Oil prices are on the rise, with WTI and Brent benchmarks both up around 3% on Tuesday following the devastating earthquake in Turkey.

By 12:17 pm ET, WTI had risen $2.54 to $76.55 per barrel—a 3.43% rise on the day. The Brent benchmark was trading up $2.31 per barrel, to $83.30—a 2.85% climb.

China’s reopening progress is also pressuring prices upward as the market eyes a demand boost from its zero-Covid transition. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has lifted the price of its flagship crude oil for Asian buyers, signaling that OPEC’s leader also views China’s reopening as legitimate.

By itself, the China factor is unlikely to have the power to swing the oil markets to any significant degree, but multiple supply outages are comingling with promises of a demand boost, sending prices higher.

On the supply side, oil export disruptions have created a stir in the market following a pair of major earthquakes that resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000, and Norway’s shutdown of its Phase 1 535,000 bpd Johan Sverdrup oilfield due to a technical fault in a cooling system.

The 1 million barrel per day Ceyhan oil terminal in southern Turkey stopped operations on Monday, according to Tribeca Shipping Agency, who added that as a whole, the ports in southern Turkey have been affected by the earthquake. Oil loadings were expected to resume today, but inclement weather caused a disruption in berthing.

Key oil pipelines in the country managed to escape damage.

The API will release U.S. crude oil and product inventory figures later this afternoon, and all eyes will be on the Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s speech on Wednesday.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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