SINGAPORE: Oil prices rose on Wednesday, pushed up by concerns that the US may reimpose sanctions on major exporter Iran, although soaring US supplies capped gains.
Brent crude oil futures were at $73.42 per barrel at 0658 GMT, up 29 cents, or 0.4 percent from their last close.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 45 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $67.70 per barrel.
Sentiment has also been bullish in physical markets, where Dubai and Malaysian crudes in April traded at their highest prices since November, 2014 at $68.27 and $75.70 per barrel respectively.
Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), re-emerged as a major oil exporter in January, 2016 when international sanctions against Tehran were lifted in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s oil exports hit 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, the Oil Ministry’s news agency SHANA reported on Tuesday, a record since the lifting of sanctions, with China and India buying more than half of Iran’s oil.
The US, however, has expressed doubts over Iran’s sincerity in implementing those curbs and President Donald Trump has threatened to re-impose sanctions.
Trump will decide by May 12 whether to restore US sanctions on Tehran, which would likely result in a reduction in its oil exports.
“If Trump abandons the deal, he risks a spike in global oil prices ... The re-introduction of US sanctions would hurt Iran’s ability to transact in dollars,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.
“A reintroduction of sanctions without seeing other OPEC-members increase production could remove an estimated 300,000-500,000 bpd of Iranian barrels,” he added.
Some analysts, however, said there was a risk that prices could slump as too many oil traders were betting on renewed sanctions.
“If the geopolitical tension subsides or results in a smaller supply disruption than currently priced in, we are likely to see a sharp pull-back in investor positioning and an even sharper correction in oil prices than the $5 or so that might be warranted even as macro uncertainties persist,” US bank Citi said in a note to investors.
Beyond the threat of new Iran sanctions, other factors prevented crude prices from rising further, including a rising dollar since mid-April as well as soaring US supplies, traders said.
US crude inventories rose by 3.4 million barrels to 432.575 million in the week to March 27, according to a report by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday.
Rising inventories are in part a result of soaring US production, which has jumped by a quarter in the last two years to 10.6 million bpd, making the United States the world’s number two crude oil producer behind only Russia, with 11 million bpd.
More US oil will likely flow. US drillers added five oil rigs looking for new production in the week to April 27, according to energy services firm Baker Hughes, bringing the total count to a March, 2015 high of 825.
Oil rises on Iran sanction worries, but surging US supplies limit gains
Oil rises on Iran sanction worries, but surging US supplies limit gains
- Sentiment has been bullish in physical markets, where Dubai and Malaysian crudes in April traded at their highest prices since November
- Rising inventories are in part a result of soaring US production, which has jumped by a quarter in the last two years to 10.6 million bpd
Saudi-built AI takes on financial crime
- Mozn’s FOCAL reflects the Kingdom’s growing fintech ambitions
RIYADH: As financial institutions face increasingly complex threats from fraud and money laundering, technology companies are racing to build systems that can keep pace with evolving risks.
One such effort is FOCAL, an AI-powered compliance and fraud prevention platform developed by Riyadh-based enterprise artificial intelligence company Mozn.
Founded in 2017, Mozn was established with a focus on building AI technology tailored to regional market needs and regulatory environments. Over time, the company has expanded its reach beyond Saudi Arabia, developing advanced AI solutions used by financial institutions in multiple markets. It has also gained international recognition, including being listed among the World’s Top 250 Fintech Companies for the second consecutive year.
In January 2026, Mozn’s flagship product, FOCAL, was named a Category Leader in Chartis Research’s RiskTech Quadrant 2025 for both AML Transaction Monitoring and KYC (Know Your Customer) Data and Solutions, placing it among 10 companies globally to receive this designation.
Malik Alyousef, co-founder of Mozn and chief technology officer of FOCAL, told Arab News that the platform initially focused on core anti-money laundering functions when development began in 2018. These included customer screening, watchlists, and transaction monitoring to support counter-terrorism financing efforts and the detection of suspicious activity.
As financial crime tactics evolved, the platform expanded into fraud prevention. According to Alyousef, this shift introduced a more proactive model, beginning with device risk analysis and later incorporating tools such as device fingerprinting, behavioral biometrics, and transaction fraud detection.
More recently, FOCAL has moved toward platform convergence through its Financial Crime Intelligence layer, a vendor-neutral framework designed to bring together multiple systems into a single interface for investigation and reporting. The approach allows institutions to gain a consolidated view without replacing their existing technology infrastructure.
“Our architecture eliminates blind spots in financial crime detection. It gives institutions a complete view of the user journey, combining transactional and non-transactional behavioral data,” Alyousef said.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Some electronic money institutions using the platform have reported fraud reductions of up to 90 percent.
• The platform combines anti-money laundering and fraud prevention into a single financial crime intelligence system.
• FOCAL integrates with existing banking systems without requiring institutions to replace their technology stack.
Beyond its underlying architecture, Alyousef pointed to several areas where FOCAL aims to differentiate itself in a competitive market. One is its emphasis on proactive fraud prevention, which assesses risk throughout the customer lifecycle — from onboarding and login behavior to ongoing account activity — with the goal of stopping fraud before losses occur.
He described the platform as an “expert-led model,” highlighting the availability of on-the-ground support for system design, tuning, assessments, and continuous optimization throughout its use.
“FOCAL is designed to be extended,” Alyousef added, noting its adaptability and the ability for clients to customize schemas, rules, and data fields to match their business models and risk tolerance. This flexibility, he said, allows institutions to respond more quickly to emerging fraud patterns.
Alyousef also emphasized the importance of local context in the platform’s development.
“The platform incorporates regional regulatory requirements and language considerations. Global tools often struggle with local context, naming conventions and compliance nuances — we are designed specifically with these realities in mind,” he said.
FOCAL is currently used by a range of organizations, including traditional banks, digital banks, fintech firms, electronic money institutions, payment companies, and other financial service providers. Alyousef said results from live deployments have been significant, with some large EMI clients reporting fraud reductions of up to 90 percent.
“Clients benefit not only from reduced fraud losses but also from an improved customer experience, as the system minimizes unnecessary friction and false rejections,” he said. “Beyond financial services, we also work with organizations in e-commerce and telecommunications.”
Looking ahead, Alyousef said the company sees agentic AI as a key direction for the future of financial crime prevention, both in the region and globally. Mozn, he added, is investing heavily in this area to enhance investigative workflows and operational efficiency, building on the capabilities of its Financial Crime Intelligence layer.
“We are pioneers in introducing agentic AI for financial crime investigation and rule-building. Our roadmap increasingly emphasizes automation, advanced machine learning and AI-assisted workflows to improve investigator productivity and reduce false positives.”
As AI tools become more widely available, Alyousef warned that the risk of misuse by criminals is also increasing, raising the bar for defensive technologies.
“Our goal is to stay ahead of that curve and to contribute meaningfully to positioning Saudi Arabia and the region as globally competitive leaders in AI,” he said.
