Oil prices rose back above USD 47 on Monday (Jan 5) as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict raged on and major crude producer Iran said OPEC would hold a special meeting next month. Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February climbed 70 cents to USD 47.61 a barrel in afternoon trade on London’s InterContinental Exchange.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for February, gained 70 cents to USD 47.04. Crude futures have been boosted over the past week as the conflict in Gaza stokes tensions in the key oil-producing Middle East.

The Gaza conflict has added to the “geopolitical risk premium embodied in the oil price,” said David Moore, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Israeli warplanes carried out intensive raids on Hamas targets today as ground troops surrounded Gaza’s main city, while Israel faced mounting diplomatic pressure for ceasefire.

Elsewhere, Iran’s OPEC representative Mohammad Ali Khatibi today said that the oil producers’ cartel would hold an extraordinary meeting in Kuwait in February. “The extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is due to be held next month in Kuwait,”.

“The exact date has not been fixed yet and no invitation has been sent to the members either,” he added in a statement posted online. OPEC, whose 12 members together produce about 40 per cent of world oil, last month agreed to cut output by 2.2 million barrels per day in a bid to shore up crude prices.