LP:Brent oil price looks shaky after Slovakia upsets EU bailout plans
Brent oil prices open today’s trading session at $110 a barrel, however after six straight days of gains, oil prices look shaky after Slovakia voted down the latest EU plan to increase the bloc’s new enlarged EFSF rescue fund.
Latest Brent Oil Price
In London, Brent crude oil futures for November 2011 delivery was trading at $110.67 a barrel, 08.20 GMT this morning on the ICE Futures Exchange. The contact closed off yesterday’s session at $110.83.
Slovakia Vote on EFSF
After hours of debate, the final vote on approving new powers for the €440bn EFSF (European financial stability facility) failed late on Tuesday evening with only 55 of Slovakia’s parliament’s 150 MPs voting in favour, causing the coalition government of Iveta Radicova to collapse. Slovakia is the last of the 17 eurozone countries to approve the improved rescue fund.
Richard Sulik, the rebel leader of Slovakia’s coalition minority member, the Freedom and Solidarity Party, abstained from the vote. He told the parliament: “I’d rather be a pariah in Brussels than have to feel ashamed before my children, who would be deeper in debt should I back raising the volume of funding in the EFSF bailout mechanism.”
This latest twist of events may see the euro weaken again in currency markets, of which the US dollar may once again rise, weighing on oil prices and other commodities.