Oil prices gained during Tuesday's Asian trade as traders weighed potential supply disruption after continued Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries.
By 3:05 pm AEST (5:05 am GMT), Brent crude futures rose 16 cents, or 0.2%, to US$67.60 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 17 cents to $63.47 per barrel.
On Monday, Brent had settled up 0.7% at US$67.44, while WTI climbed 1% to US$63.30.
Ukraine has stepped up its strikes against Russia’s energy infrastructure in a bid to undermine Moscow’s war capacity, as peace talks remain stalled.
ANZ analysts noted: "Another drone attack struck the Kinef refinery, one of the nation’s largest. It has an annual processing capacity of over 20mt. This follows last week’s wave of attacks which Ukraine claimed have struck facilities handling almost half of Russia’s seaborne crude exports.
"The International Energy Agency estimates the strikes in August have put offline 250kb/d of Russia’s active crude-processing capacity."
In Washington, United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that the government would not impose further tariffs on Chinese goods to pressure Beijing to halt Russian oil purchases unless European countries introduced steep duties on China and India.
Meanwhile, investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on 16-17 September, where the central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates. Analysts say lower borrowing costs could help support fuel demand.
Markets are additionally focused on U.S. crude stockpiles, with official data due Wednesday. Inventories are forecast to fall by 6.4 million barrels in the week ended September 12, after a build of 3.9 million barrels the previous week.
