Oil Prices Climb as Geopolitical Risk Rises Rapidly

Oil prices continued to climb in early Asian trade on Friday morning after posting a sharp increase on Thursday, with the market again pricing in geopolitical risk across multiple key producers and shipping routes. At the time of writing, West Texas Intermediate was trading around $58.27 per barrel, up by 0.85% or $0.49. On Thursday, both WTI and Brent climbed by over 3%, with Brent on the brink of breaking the $62 mark. Venezuela remained a major driver of the risk premium after the U.S. escalated enforcement against sanctioned flows by seizing…