EMEA News
Brexit Would Hardly Affect The Oil Market At All: Fesharaki
Oil prices rose nearly 3 percent on Monday after polls indicated less of a chance that Britain will leave the European Union, but Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman of FGE, told concerned CNBC analysts that a so-called Brexit would have minimal impact on the market anyway
He said if Brits vote to leave the Union later this week it wouldn't "have any impact on supply and demand, but it [would have] an impact on the negative economic feeling, and presumably that could bring prices down some."
But even this would be fleeting, he added: "It may have an impact for a day or two, and then soon they would realize it makes no difference."
Fesharaki is proving to be a calm voice amidst wild speculation of what voters will do on Thursday: opinion polls suggest the leave and remain campaigns are neck and neck, but bookmaker figures processed by the Oddschecker survey found that the probability of a vote to leave has fallen to 24.8 percent from almost 40 percent on June 15, which was just days prior to the murder of pro-EU MP Jo Cox.
The British pound also shot up 2.2 percent to $1.46 on Monday, reflecting the growing sentiment that Brits will stay put.
But despite his CNBC hosts reiterating the fears and concerns of economists who think a Brexit will happen, Fesharaki steadfastly maintained that it would be a mere blip on the oil market radar.
He said, "What matters in the oil market is all this oil which is offline, in Libya, in Canada, in Nigeria: if they all gush back together, then people can begin to run for the door."
Last week Ship and Bunker reported the predictions of various analysts, who cumulatively believed that in the run up to the June 23 referendum, prices overall were expected to be soft on the back of a strengthening dollar fuelled by investors moving cash into the perceived USD safe haven ahead of the vote.
