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A ship navigates the Suez Canal in Egypt
# Egypt
Fears of oil crisis in Egypt unrest ease - but price stays above $100 a barrel
Suez Canal has not been disrupted by violence in the Middle East but traders keeping a close eye on further flare-ups that might cut off supplies.
THE PRICE OF oil dropped from a two-year high this morning – but it is still above $100 a barrel for the second day running.
Yesterday, TheJournal.ie reported that the unrest in Egypt was sending the price of Brent North Sea Crude oil upwards. The spike in price was caused by fears that the protests erupting in the Middle East would spread to more prominent oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia.
There were also concerns that the passage of oil through the Suez Canal would be disrupted and oil tankers forced to add weeks to their journeys as they were diverted around Africa to reach Europe or the US.
However, analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov has told Bloomberg that:
So far the escalating violence in Suez has seen no specific targeting of shipping facilities or passing ships. We still see little threat to major producing nations, with the exception of Algeria, where we had some unrest earlier this month.
Egypt has also taken some precautions against a blockade of the Suez Canal by deploying troops to guard the SuMed pipeline transporting crude oil along the side of the canal. Tankers cannot use the canal with a full load so some of it must be carried along this pipeline until it is pumped back onto the largest tankers at the Mediterranean exit. Reuters Africa is reporting that at least one shipping firm is re-routing its container vessels to avoid Egypt altogether.
