Crude oil futures traded marginally lower on Friday morning, as Israel attacked the southern city of Rafah, on Thursday, after rejecting the ceasefire offer by Hamas.
At 9.52 am on Friday, April Brent oil futures were at $81.59, down by 0.05 per cent and March crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $76.20, down by 0.03 per cent.
February crude oil futures were trading at ₹6,322 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) in the initial trading hour of Friday morning, against the previous close of ₹6,307, up by 0.24 per cent, and March futures were trading at ₹6,342 as against the previous close of ₹6,325, up by 0.27 per cent.
Quoting residents, a Reuters report said that Israeli forces bombed some parts of Rafah on Thursday leading to the death of 11 people.
The White House spokesperson, John Kirby, said an Israeli operation in Rafah without due consideration for the plight of civilians would be a disaster.
Meanwhile, a Hamas delegation reached Cairo for ceasefire talks with mediators Egypt and Qatar. Tensions in Middle East region has led to the increase in the prices of commodities such as crude oil.
Another report by Reuters said that damage to Russian refineries from drone attacks and technical outages have led to export of more crude oil than it planned in February.
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Russia is a major exporter in the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and allies, known as OPEC+. As per the cuts announced by the OPEC+, Russian crude oil production was capped at 9.5 million barrels a day. Russia had agreed for a voluntary export cut of 300,000 barrels a day of crude oil.
February natural gas futures were trading at ₹156.30 on MCX in the initial trading hour of Friday morning against the previous close of ₹161.20, down by 3.04 per cent.
On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), February crude sunflower oil contracts were trading at ₹846.8 in the initial trading hour of Friday morning against the previous close of ₹843.50, up by 0.39 per cent.
April jeera futures were trading at ₹26255 on NCDEX in the initial trading hour of Friday morning against the previous close of ₹26380, down by 0.47 per cent.