Crude oil logs first weekly gain in 3 weeks on US-EU trade talks, Iran sanctions: Brent, WTI up 5%; Should you buy?

Oil prices settled more than 3% higher on Thursday, supported by hopes for a trade deal between the United States and the European Union and new U.S. sanctions to curb Iranian oil exports, which continued to elevate supply concerns.

Brent crude futures settled $2.11, or 3.2%, higher to $67.96 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained $2.21, or 3.54%, at $64.68 a barrel.

For the week, both Brent and WTI gained about 5%, their first weekly gain in three weeks. Thursday is the last settlement day of the week ahead of the Easter holidays and trade volumes were thin.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met in Washington and expressed optimism about resolving trade tensions that have strained U.S.-European relations.

"We're going to have very little problem making a deal with Europe or anybody else, because we have something that everybody wants," Trump said. Washington also issued additional sanctions on several companies and vessels it said were responsible for facilitating Iranian oil shipments to China as part of Iran's shadow fleet.

Sanctions issued by Trump's administration on Wednesday, including against a China-based "teapot" oil refinery, ramp up pressure on Tehran amid talks on the country's nuclear programme. "Teapot" is an industry term for small, independent and simple oil refiners.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Wednesday it had received updated plans for Iraq, Kazakhstan and other countries to make further output cuts to compensate for pumping above quotas.

However, OPEC, the International Energy Agency and several banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, cut forecasts on oil prices and demand growth this week as U.S. tariffs and retaliation from other countries threw global trade into disarray.

"WTI crude oil surged above $63 per barrel supported by mounting supply disruption concerns, improving prospects for US-China trade talks, and falling product inventories. China signaled readiness to resume trade negotiations with the Trump administration, albeit under certain conditions," said Kaynat Chainwala, AVP-Commodity Research, Kotak Securities

US crude inventories rose by 0.5 million barrels last week, while gasoline and distillate stocks declined by 2 million and 1.9 million barrels, respectively. Oil prices extended gains for a second straight session, climbing further above $63/bbl as the US Treasury announced new sanctions targeting Chinese importers of Iranian oil in an effort to cut Iran’s exports to zero. Domestic brokerage Religare Broking has a ‘sell’ rating on MCX crude futures 

This is a developing story