Oil futures finished higher on Monday for a second straight session, although U.S. prices ended below $80 a barrel for a fourth session in a row. The halt of northern Iraqi oil exports via pipeline to Turkish ports, amounting to 450,000 barrels a day, has been a “fundamental tailwind for energy prices,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research. On Monday, it was reported that there have been further delays in negotiations between the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan regional government and the Turkish government “that are critical to getting those northern Iraqi oil flows restarted,” he said. June West Texas Intermediate crude CLM23 edged up by 89 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $78.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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