On Tuesday, Brent crude for delivery in October rose to $115.40 a barrel, up 59 cents from the previous day, Reuters reported.
It was the highest level for Brent since June.
US October crude also rose by 63 cents to $97.17 a barrel, above the closely-watched 200-day moving average of $96.61.
Oil owed its gains for the day to the reduction of imports by Western countries as a result of unilateral sanctions against Iran.
Recently-announced weak US economic data, Moody's Investors Service warning of a potential US credit rating downgrade, and Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruling on a eurozone rescue plan due on Wednesday are among other factors that pushed prices higher on Tuesday.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.
Crude prices have been increasing following the illegal sanctions and the persisting Israeli publicity campaign of threatening unilateral military strikes against Iran.
xinhua/281
