After the Christmas break, investors on global commodity markets returned to activity. Tuesday's session brought a dynamic rise in Crude Oil prices - the price of WTI oil increased by 2.6%, reaching around USD 60 per barrel, that is to this year's price record and at the same time the highest level since mid-2015.
The direct cause of such a clear increase in oil prices during yesterday's session was the disruption of the oil industry in Libya. Due to the explosion, supplies of about 90,000 barrels of crude oil were interrupted per day by oil pipeline transporting the raw material to the important port of Es Sider. The problem is serious, although in the Libyan market disturbances in crude oil extraction and transport have been occurring regularly for several years, which is why investors' reaction may be short-lived.
In turn, the situation in the North Sea is slowly returning to normal. In the first half of December, the key oil pipeline Forties, transporting up to 450,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was closed due to leaks detected during routine inspections. Currently, the oil flow through Forties is gradually being restored, and the pipeline operator announces that at the beginning of the year the situation will return to its pre-failure state.
Let's now take a look at the Crude Oil technical picture at the H4 time frame. After the triangle breakout, the market has hit the level of $60.02 before the slight pull-back was taking place. The nearest technical support is seen at the level of $59.04 and it looks like this level will be tested soon as the overbought trading conditions confirm the deeper pull-back scenario.
