Oil Prices Jump After US Airstrike Kills Top Iranian General

Oil prices on Friday jumped close to $70 per barrel after an Iranian military chief was killed in a military operation conducted by the United States.
This may have raised fears of destabilisation and possibly affect global oil output in the region.
Brent crude futures jumped 2.9 per cent to $68.16 per barrel during Asian trading hours on Friday.
CNN reports US oil futures gained 2.8 per cent, reaching $62.86 per barrel. That puts both on pace right now for their biggest daily gains in about a month, according to Refinitiv data.
The Pentagon, U.S. military headquarters, confirmed in a statement that Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in an airstrike at the Baghdad International Airport, Iraq.
“An indirect response is the most apparent course of action, and oil installations and tankers were my first thoughts,” CNN quoted Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at Oanda, in a research note.
But he added that it’s hard to tell whether Friday’s surge will be sustained.
Oil prices spiked more than 14 per cent last September in the wake of a devastating attack on the heart of Saudi Arabian oil production, disrupting 5 per cent of the daily global oil supply.
But prices pulled back quickly in the following days after Saudi officials said the kingdom would rely on reserves to keep exports stable.