Oil Pares Gains after Strongest Weekly Rise in Over a Year

FILE PHOTO: A pump jack drills oil crude from the Yates Oilfield in West Texas’s Permian Basin, as a 1.5MW GE wind turbine from the Desert Sky Wind Farm is seen in the distance, near Iraan, Texas, US, March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Bing Guan/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A pump jack drills oil crude from the Yates Oilfield in West Texas’s Permian Basin, as a 1.5MW GE wind turbine from the Desert Sky Wind Farm is seen in the distance, near Iraan, Texas, US, March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Bing Guan/File Photo
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Oil Pares Gains after Strongest Weekly Rise in Over a Year

FILE PHOTO: A pump jack drills oil crude from the Yates Oilfield in West Texas’s Permian Basin, as a 1.5MW GE wind turbine from the Desert Sky Wind Farm is seen in the distance, near Iraan, Texas, US, March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Bing Guan/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A pump jack drills oil crude from the Yates Oilfield in West Texas’s Permian Basin, as a 1.5MW GE wind turbine from the Desert Sky Wind Farm is seen in the distance, near Iraan, Texas, US, March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Bing Guan/File Photo

Oil prices pared gains in early trade on Monday after charting their biggest weekly rise in over a year on Friday amid mounting threats of a region-wide war in the Middle East.
Brent crude futures fell 43 cents, or 0.5%, to $77.62 per barrel by around 0015 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 35 cents, or 0.5%, to $74.03 per barrel, according to Reuters.
Last week, the Brent contract gained over 8% on a weekly basis and the most in a week since January 2023, while the WTI contract gained 9.1% week-on-week, the most since March 2023.
"Profit-taking might have been the cause of the retreat after the price surge last week," said independent market analyst Tina Teng.
"However, the oil market will likely continue to face upside pressure due to fears of Israel's retaliation response to Iran. Geopolitical tensions are now playing a key role in shaping the market trend."
Israel bombed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Sunday ahead of the one-year anniversary of Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that triggered war. Its defense minister also said all options were open for retaliation against Iran.
That came after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel last week in response to Israel's operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli police said early on Monday that Hezbollah rockets had hit Israel's third-largest city of Haifa.
Despite the rally in oil prices last week, the impact of this conflict on oil supply will be relatively small, said ANZ Research in a Monday client note.
"We see a direct attack on Iran's oil facilities as the least likely response among Israel's options. Such a move would upset its international partners, while a disruption to Iran's oil revenue would likely leave it with little to lose, potentially provoking a more ferocious response," it said.
"Moreover, we have seen a diminished impact of geopolitical events on oil supply. This has led to a significantly smaller geopolitical risk premium being applied to oil markets in recent years, and OPEC's 7 million barrels per day of spare capacity provides a further buffer."
OPEC and its allies including Russia and Kazakhstan have millions of barrels of spare capacity, as it has been cutting production in recent years to support prices amid weak global demand.
At its last meeting on Oct. 2, OPEC and its allies, or OPEC+, kept its oil output policy unchanged including a plan to start raising production from December.



Morocco Receives 17.4 Million Tourists in 2024, Up 20% on 2023

FILE PHOTO: People walk outside the Cinema Museum of Ouarzazate, Morocco, October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Stelios Misinas/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People walk outside the Cinema Museum of Ouarzazate, Morocco, October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Stelios Misinas/File Photo
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Morocco Receives 17.4 Million Tourists in 2024, Up 20% on 2023

FILE PHOTO: People walk outside the Cinema Museum of Ouarzazate, Morocco, October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Stelios Misinas/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People walk outside the Cinema Museum of Ouarzazate, Morocco, October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Stelios Misinas/File Photo

Morocco received a record 17.4 million tourists in 2024, up 20% compared with previous year, with Moroccans living abroad accounting for nearly half the total, the tourism ministry said on Thursday.
Tourism accounts for about 7% of the North African country's gross domestic product and is a key source of jobs and foreign currency, Reuters reported.
The number of arrivals this year was two years ahead of target, the ministry said in a statement. It expects Morocco to receive 26 million tourists by 2030, when the country co-hosts the World Cup, together with Spain and Portugal.
Morocco has opened additional air routes to key tourist markets, while promoting new destinations within the country and encouraging the renovation of hotels.
From January to November, tourism revenue rose 7.2% to a record 104 billion dirhams, according to Morocco's foreign exchange regulator.