RIYADH: Oil prices were steady on Tuesday as investors weighed that strong holiday travel in China could boost fuel demand amid fears of slow economic growth prompted by the prospect of rising interest rates across the globe.
Brent crude went up 20 cents to $82.93 a barrel at 11:45 a.m. Saudi time, while US West Texas Intermediate crude also edged up 20 cents to $78.96 a barrel.Â
Liberia says Exxon applied for four offshore oil blocksÂ
Exxon Mobil Corp. has applied to prequalify for four offshore oil blocks in Liberia, the West African country’s state oil regulator has announced.Â
Once prequalified, Exxon will be invited to negotiate a petroleum sharing agreement for blocks 15, 16, 22 and 24 in the Liberia Basin, the country’s Petroleum Regulatory Authority said.Â
Colombia’s Transandino oil pipeline bombed: CenitÂ
Cenit, a subsidiary of Colombia’s majority state-owned oil company Ecopetrol, has reported the country’s Transandino pipeline was bombed on Sunday.Â
The pipeline runs along Colombia’s border with Ecuador, taking up to 85,000 barrels of crude per day to an export terminal in Tumaco, a Pacific port in the country’s Narino province.Â
The attack took place in Narino’s Guachucal municipality, although the pipeline was not pumping oil at the time, a spokesperson for Cenit said.Â
Cenit did not attribute the attack to any particular group, but guerrillas of the National Liberation Army and FARC dissidents who rejected a 2016 peace deal with the government operate in the area, according to the military.Â
(With input from Reuters)Â Â
