Oil prices jumped to nearly 105 dollars a barrel – a nine-month high – in Asia after Iran said it halted crude exports to Britain and France in a dispute over its nuclear programme.
Benchmark crude was up 1.75 to 104.99 dollars a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose to 105.21, the highest since May. The contract rose 93 cents to settle at 103.24 a barrel in New York.
Iran’s oil ministry said it stopped crude shipments to British and French companies in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran’s crucial fuel exports.
They included a freeze of the country’s central bank assets and an oil embargo set to begin in July.
Iran’s oil minister Rostam Qassemi had warned that Tehran could cut off oil exports to “hostile” European nations. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18% of Iran’s oil exports.
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