Investing.com - Oil prices were higher on Monday ahead of upcoming U.S. sanctions on Iran starting next month.
West Texas crude oil futures for November rose 0.64% to $73.72 a barrel as of 11:07 AM ET (15:07 GMT). Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., increased 0.76%, near to a four-year-high, at $83.37.
The looming sanctions, which are aimed at Iranian oil sector, continued to increase prices as traders worry about decreased supply. The U.S. has said it will not tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase supply to offset the decrease in production when the sanctions go into effect on Nov. 4.
But U.S. President Donald Trump called Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday to discuss how to maintain sufficient supply once Iran's exports are hit by sanctions.
The call was just days after Trump criticized the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia for increasing oil prices, which OPEC denies.
“OPEC and OPEC nations, are, as usual, ripping off the rest of the world, and I don’t like it,” Trump said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. “We want them to stop raising prices. We want them to start lowering prices and they must contribute substantially to military protection from now on.”
Prices of oil have been rising in recent months over concern of tightening supply due to U.S. sanctions against Tehran, which have already caused Iran’s crude exports to fall.
In other energy trading, gasoline RBOB futures rose 0.25% at $2.0955 a gallon, while heating oil increased 0.65% to $2.3637 a gallon. Natural gas futures surged 2.59% to $3.086 per million British thermal units.