Iran and Russia Impact Crude Oil Prices

March WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil (XLE) (USL) (USO) (UCO) futures contracts rose 0.5% and closed at $53.83 per barrel on February 3, 2017. Brent crude oil futures contracts rose 0.4% and closed at $56.8 per barrel. The US stock market (SPY) also rose 0.69% on February 3, 2017. For more updates on crude oil prices, read Part 4 of this series.

Crude oil prices rose due to the following:

• President Trump ordered new sanctions against some Iranian individuals and entities. The sanctions could impact Iran’s oil supplies—read Part 6 of this series to learn more.
• Russia’s energy ministry reported that Russia’s oil production fell by 10,000 bpd (barrels per day) in January 2017—compared to the previous month due to major producers’ production cut deal.
• OPEC’s (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) crude oil production fell in January 2017.

Higher crude oil prices have a positive impact on oil and gas exploration and production companies’ earnings such as Noble Energy (NBL), Denbury Resources (DNR), Chevron (CVX), Stone Energy (SGY), and Cobalt International Energy (CIE).

In this series, we’ll look at the energy calendar, US crude oil (XOP) (XLE) (IEZ) (ERX) highs and lows in the last 12 months, Cushing crude oil inventories, the US crude oil rig count, Iran’s crude oil production, and some crude oil price forecasts.

Let’s look at the US dollar and its impact on crude oil prices in the next part of this series.