International Benchmark Brent crude traded at $74.57 per barrel at 15.27 GMT+2 while American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) saw prices of $67.92 per barrel on Friday.
Brent crude increased to over $75 per barrel on Tuesday from $73 per barrel on Monday due to U.S. President Donald Trump's statements on Iran regarding the possibility of pulling out of the nuclear deal.
Under a deal signed in 2015, the U.S. and other world powers agreed to lift some of the economic sanctions imposed against Iran in return for the latter agreeing to rein in its nuclear program.
Trump warned Iran on Tuesday that it should not attempt to re-start its nuclear program, as he threatened to potentially torpedo the 2015 agreement.
Trump has repeatedly called the pact 'one of the worst negotiated agreements' he has ever seen, and has threatened to pull the U.S. out of it unless Washington and its European allies strike a side deal with conditions largely unrelated to the original agreement spanning Iran's regional activities and its ballistic missile program.
He and all of the U.S.' negotiating partners -- Germany, the European Union, the United Kingdom, China and Russia -- view the deal as the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran has adamantly denied its program was intended to develop nuclear arms.
Trump has to determine, until the May 12 deadline, if he will continue to extend sanctions relief on Iran with or without the side deal he has sought from his Western allies. Should he fail to extend relief, the deal would almost certainly collapse.
- OPEC production cuts
Also the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries supply cut deal helped oil prices increase.
OPEC members on Nov. 30 in 2016 unanimously agreed to lower oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) down to 32.5 million bpd. This was the organization's first production cut in eight years, and its first intervention in the global oil market since mid-2014 when oil prices began to fall.
Non-OPEC oil producing countries led by Russia agreed to contribute towards a cap of 600 thousand bpd, which brought the total production cut up to 1.8 million bpd.
On Nov. 30, 2017, during the 173rd (Ordinary) OPEC meeting and the third OPEC and Non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting in Vienna, the organization along with oil producing countries led by Russia decided to extend the oil production cap of 1.8 million bpd to the end of December 2018.
By Huseyin Erdogan
Anadolu Agency
energy.com.tr