Brent Crude soars above $80 amidst panic buying in UK

Brent crude futures climbed almost 1% to above $80 per barrel on Tuesday, a level not seen since October 2018, amid tighter supply and recovering demand in many parts of the world.

In the UK, trucker shortages coupled with panic buying have led to a widespread shortage of fuel in many petrol stations, a phenomenon that has started to impact different sectors of the economy.

At the same time, operations at American oil platforms in the US Gulf still lagged behind pre-hurricane levels and EIA stock inventories of crude shrank to a 3-year low of 414 million barrels last week.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs raised by $10 its year-end forecast for Brent crude to $90 per barrel.

Brent Crude oil is a major benchmark price for purchases of oil worldwide. While Brent Crude oil is sourced from the North Sea the oil production coming from Europe, Africa and the Middle East flowing West tends to be priced relative to this oil.