Repsol hopes Iran’s attack on Israel will not escalate due to possible impact on oil price
Repsol is monitoring the possible fallout from Iran’s attack on Israel, which launched 170 drones, 120 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles over the country in the early hours of April 14, two weeks after Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
“We have experienced the horror of this absolutely reprehensible attack, hence The main thing is that it does not scale.And and I understand that the market today interprets this,” said the Repsol CEO. Josu John Imaz, during his speech at the forum “Wake up, Spain!” from El Español. “Escalation from a geopolitical and human point of view would be very negative, as well as from a macroeconomic point of view. Nobody wants restrictions on oil supplies“, he elaborated, adding: “Uncertainty exists, and I hope that there will be no further escalation in this conflict.”
This Monday, despite expectations, the price of a barrel of oil Brent (benchmark oil for Europe) was just under $90, lowering previous records. Specifically, before stock markets opened, the price of a barrel of Brent crude stood at $89.76, up from the previous close of $90.45 and a far cry from the more than $92 it reached on Friday.
Reduced demand forecast
In its monthly newsletter for April: International Energy Agency (IEA) revised down by just over 100,000 barrels per day its estimate of global oil demand growth in 2024 to 1.2 million barrels per day (mb/d).
“While we expect oil consumption growth in 2024 and 2025 to remain strong by historical standards, structural factors will lead to a gradual slowdown in oil demand growth over the remainder of this decade,” the IEA warned.