By Bhavik Patel

Oil prices continued their sideways journey, with some bullishness emerging from weak US retail sales swiftly quashed by new escalation in the Middle East, with Israel attacking Rafah and the Houthis expected to retaliate soon. Though there are rumblings in the market that OPEC+ members appear to be ignoring their 2024 production cuts, Brent has not yet moved from its current lingering point around $82 per barrel.

Further positive news for crude was decrease in production from Iraq. Iraq’s oil ministry declared that it will make up for its January boost in crude production over the course of the following four months. According to secondary sources from OPEC, the Middle Eastern nation’s output was 4.19 million barrels per day, or abo…