Oil prices suddenly dropped

(Patria) - Oil prices continued to fall as fears of an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East subsided.

Benchmark Brent crude fell by about 5.3 percent to $73.34 a barrel, before the price partially recovered to around $74.45 a barrel.

This is a price drop of almost 10 percent compared to the recent peak of $81.16 last week.

The price of US WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude also fell significantly on Tuesday, by more than four percent to around $70.70 a barrel, according to data from the specialized energy market monitoring portal Oil Price.

Analysts attribute the drop to reports that Israel informed US officials that, in the event of an attack on Iran, it would target only military targets, not oil or nuclear facilities.

Additional reasons for the price drop include signs of reduced demand, such as recent disappointing inflation and trade data from China, as well as OPEC's forecast from Monday that global demand growth will be lower than expected this and next year.