RIYADH: Oil prices rose nearly 3 percent on Wednesday before paring some gains as investors piled back into the market after a heavy rout in the previous session.
Brent crude futures rose as much as $3.08, or 2.9 percent, to $105.85 a barrel in early trade after plunging 9.5 percent on Tuesday, the biggest daily drop since March.
It was last up 92 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $103.69 a barrel at 0243 GMT.
US West Texas Intermediate crude climbed to a session high of $102.14 a barrel, up $2.64, or 2.7 percent, after closing below $100 for the first time since late April. It was last up 46 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $99.96 a barrel.
OPEC general secretary Mohammad Barkindo dies at 63
OPEC secretary-general Mohammad Barkindo has died at Abuja, Nigeria at the age of 63, Arab News learned.
He will be buried in his home town Yola, a source confirmed.
The news of Barkindo’s death was confirmed by Mele Kyari, managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
In a tweet, Kyari described Barkindo’s departure as a great loss to his immediate family, NNPC Nigeria, OPEC and the global energy community.
US investors form venture to pursue oil and gas projects in Venezuela
Two US investment funds on Tuesday said they formed a joint venture with a Venezuelan firm to pursue oil and gas exploration and production projects in the US-sanctioned South American country.
Gramercy Funds Management and Atmos Global Energy said their joint venture would work with an arm of Inelectra Group, a Caracas-based firm that holds a stake in the Gulf of Paria East oil project off Venezuela’s eastern coast, where it found oil in 2001.
US companies are barred from doing business with Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA, a policy begun in 2018 by the Trump administration and continued under US President Joe Biden.
The companies did not disclose the size of their investment in the oil venture. Spokespeople did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Any effort is subject to approvals by the US and Venezuela, the companies said.
Ali Moshiri, a US executive and former chief of Chevron Corp’s Latin American operations, set up an investment fund in 2019 to pursue energy projects in Venezuela. The partners aim to “contribute to balancing oil supply and demand,” he said in a statement.
The oil effort “will be beneficial to US interests in the region and the US economy by lowering fuel prices for American consumers,” said Matt Maloney, a partner at Connecticut-based emerging market investor Gramercy.
(With input from Reuters)
