New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, gained 39 cents to reach $91.26 a barrel while North Sea’s Brent crude for February delivery rose by 38 cents to jump to $111.18 a barrel.
This comes after US President Barack Obama called for a meeting with top Congressional leaders in an attempt to break the deadlock over the looming ‘fiscal cliff.’
A White House official said that President Obama will hold talks with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Friday.
The meeting will be held amid increasing concerns about reaching an agreement on averting the fiscal cliff, which could cause another recession in the United States.
The fiscal cliff refers to a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that are set to come into force on January 1, unless Republicans and Democrats can come together with an alternative budget plan. Economists warn that such a shock could send the US economy back into recession.
Republicans and Democrats are still at loggerheads over the terms of a deal on how to avoid $680 billion in automatic increases in taxes and spending cuts.
The illegal US-engineered sanctions against Iran’s oil industry are also a significant contributing factor in the recent oil price hikes.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors.
The illegal bans have been imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
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