Texas oil drops 1% on the last day of the year

The price of Texas intermediate oil (WTI) closed on Tuesday with a drop of 1%, to 61.06 dollars (54.44 euros) a barrel, in the last session of 2019, the year in which the price of crude oil has revalued about 35%.

At the end of the operations with live voice in the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the WTI futures contracts for delivery in February subtracted 62 cents from the previous session on Monday.

Despite optimism about the expected phase one trade agreement between China and the US, it seems that investors have been more affected by tensions unleashed in Iraq after the Pentagon reported Sunday that the United States carried out “defensive attacks” in Iraq and Syria against the Shiite militia Kata’ib Hizbulá (KH), after the death of a US contractor on Friday due to rockets launched against a military base in Kirkuk (Iraq).

Today, hundreds of supporters and members of Shiite militias stormed the US Embassy in Baghdad, which makes fear a diplomatic crisis between the two partners, with the conflict with Iran in the background.

Oil prices have also reached their highest level since the attack on the Saudi oil field in mid-September, so traders are also cautious about the possibilities of making a profit, according to analysts.

In this context, gasoline futures contracts expiring in February, the new reference month, fell three cents, to 1.69 dollars (1.50 euros) a gallon, and natural gas, expiring the same month. They barely underwent changes and remained at 2.18 dollars (1.94 euros) per thousand cubic feet.