The powderkeg in Egypt helped push Brent crude oil futures to their highest prices in more than two years as concerns mounted about difficulties exporting the commodity from the Middle East, Bloomberg reports.
The discontent with government leaders is expected to spread through additional Middle East nations as anti-government protestors staged demonstrations in the center of Cairo in opposition to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Tunisia's leader was ousted last month.
"The market is rising because the situation in Egypt doesn't appear to be settling down," Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester,Massachusetts, told the news service. "It looks like the unrest will continue and possibly spread in the surrounding region."
Shortly before 10 a.m., Brent crude futures were up 0.29 percent, a 0.30 cent increase to $102.04 per barrel. The political unrest has done its part to push prices of Brent crude futures beyond $100 per barrel this week.
"The chief reason for oil's rally through $100 is the return of the geopolitical risk premium," Christopher Bellew, senior broker at Bache Commodities in London, told the news service. "There has been a fresh inflow of speculative positions, though with stocks and spare production capacity ample, conditions don’t suggest a surge to new records."
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