International oil prices rose on the 21st

As the EU reached an agreement on the rescue of Greece, market sentiment was greatly boosted, international oil prices rose sharply on the 21st, and New York and London both hit a nine-month high.

On the same day, after several twists and turns, the EU finance minister finally reached an agreement to rescue Greece and decided to provide Greece with a second rescue fund totalling 130 billion euros. This batch of relief funds met Greece’s short-term funding needs. Although it still failed to fundamentally solve the Greek debt problem and was unable to effectively promote Greek economic growth, it still greatly boosted market sentiment and international oil prices rose.

At the same time, the euro also gained momentum, once rising to a two-week high against the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar index fell by about 0.4%, and the weak dollar pushed up oil prices.

In addition, Iranian factors continue to provide support for rising oil prices. Iran recently announced that it will stop selling oil to Britain and France. Iran’s national oil company also claimed that if European oil companies do not sign long-term contracts, they will stop supplying oil to them.

By the close of the day, the price of light crude oil** delivered by the New York Mercantile Exchange in March rose by 2.60 U.S. dollars to close at 105.84 U.S. dollars, an increase of 2.52 percent, the highest since May last year.

The price of Brent crude oil in the North Sea that was delivered in the London market in April also rose by 1.61 US dollars to close at 121.66 US dollars per barrel, an increase of 1.34%.