Markets: Mideast unrest sends oil soaring
The price of a barrel of oil this week rose to a two-year high, while gold shot past $1,400 an ounce, amid escalating tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, said Stephen Kirkland in Bloomberg.com. Brent crude oil, the European benchmark, hit $105.78 a barrel in London, up more than 4 percent since Feb. 1; West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. standard, jumped 6.4 percent in a single day—to $95.42 a barrel—in New York. International stock indexes began the week with precipitous falls in Paris, Frankfurt, and other trading centers. The Mideast and North Africa account for 36 percent of the world’s annual output of crude.
Traders fear the unrest could lead to disruption in oil supplies, said the Associated Press, especially if the turmoil spreads from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, its neighbor on the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia “sits atop the world’s largest proven reserves of conventional crude oil.” Any hint of instability in Saudi Arabia “could send oil prices surging across the world, threatening a continued global economic recovery.” In Bahrain, the majority population of Shiite Muslims has long chafed under Sunni rule.
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