‘Knee-jerk surge’: Oil experts predict market impact of Israel-Hamas conflict
- The overall impact on oil markets from the attack on Israel by Palestinian militants Hamas will likely be limited, provided the conflict does not escalate further, energy experts said.
- “We may see a knee-jerk surge in crude prices when markets open on Monday,” Vandana Hari, CEO of Vanda Insights, told CNBC.
- Both Israel and Palestine are not major oil players, but the conflict sits in a wider key oil producing region, analysts said, warning that it has the potential to conflagrate further.
Crude oil prices could see a spike on Monday but the overall impact of the attack on Israel by Palestinian militants Hamas will likely be limited, energy experts told CNBC.
That’s provided the conflict does not escalate further, they said.
“We may see a knee-jerk surge in crude prices when markets open on Monday,” Vandana Hari, CEO of Vanda Insights, told CNBC via email.
“There will be some risk premium factored in as a default, until the market is satisfied that the event is not setting off a chain reaction and Mideast oil and gas supplies won’t be affected,” said Hari.
Militants from Hamas — designated by the U.S., European Union and the U.K. as a terrorist organization — infiltrated Israel by land, sea and air on Saturday, during a major Jewish holiday. The incursion came hours after the Islamist militants fired thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza.
Civilians including women, children and the elderly have been abducted, and others killed in their homes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.