{"id":121640,"date":"2025-12-11T14:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T10:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/?p=121640"},"modified":"2025-12-11T13:25:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T09:25:52","slug":"oil-prices-edge-higher-after-u-s-seizes-sanctioned-venezuelan-tanker-crude-stocks-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/oil-prices-edge-higher-after-u-s-seizes-sanctioned-venezuelan-tanker-crude-stocks-decline\/12\/11\/market-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil Prices Edge Higher After U.S. Seizes Sanctioned Venezuelan Tanker; Crude Stocks Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Oil prices rose in Asian trading on Thursday after the <strong>United States seized a sanctioned oil tanker near Venezuela<\/strong>, raising concerns about potential supply disruptions, while a drop in U.S. crude inventories added further support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of <strong>21:38 ET (02:38 GMT)<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Brent (Feb)<\/strong> rose <strong>0.4%<\/strong> to <strong>$62.44<\/strong> per barrel<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>WTI<\/strong> gained <strong>0.5%<\/strong> to <strong>$58.78<\/strong> per barrel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>U.S. Seizes Venezuelan-Linked Tanker<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Media reports indicated that a tanker \u2014 identified as the <strong>Skipper<\/strong> \u2014 was intercepted near Venezuelan waters in a coordinated operation involving the <strong>U.S. Coast Guard, FBI, and Homeland Security<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> confirmed the seizure, calling it the <strong>\u201clargest ever\u201d<\/strong> vessel taken under U.S. sanctions enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The operation underscored the potential for <strong>further disruptions to Venezuelan exports<\/strong>, injecting a fresh <strong>supply-risk premium<\/strong> into global oil markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>U.S. Crude Inventories Decline \u2013 EIA<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Weekly data from the <strong>Energy Information Administration (EIA)<\/strong> showed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Crude stocks fell by 1.812 million barrels<\/strong>, surpassing expectations for a 1.1 million-barrel draw.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Gasoline inventories increased<\/strong>, reflecting softer seasonal demand.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Distillate inventories<\/strong> \u2014 including diesel and heating oil \u2014 also rose.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The crude draw suggests that <strong>near-term supply remains tighter<\/strong> than anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Fed Rate Cut Adds Support<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Federal Reserve<\/strong> cut interest rates by <strong>25 basis points<\/strong>, lowering the target range to <strong>3.5%\u20133.75%<\/strong>, marking its <strong>third cut in the current cycle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The decision, despite several dissenting votes, pushed the <strong>U.S. dollar lower<\/strong>, improving demand prospects for dollar-denominated commodities such as oil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oil prices rose in Asian trading on Thursday after the United States seized a sanctioned oil tanker near Venezuela, raising concerns about potential supply disruptions, while a drop in U.S. crude inventories added further support. As of 21:38 ET (02:38 GMT): Brent (Feb) rose 0.4% to $62.44 per barrel WTI gained 0.5% to $58.78 per &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":60920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,6827,49,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-commodities-news","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-market-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121641,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121640\/revisions\/121641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}