Crude oil prices rose as U.S. President Barack Obama authorized airstrikes in parts of Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, while Chevron Corp. said it was withdrawing some workers. Brent futures advanced as much as 1.3 percent in London and West Texas Intermediate by 1.1 percent in New York. Obama said yesterday that the strikes, if needed, would be used to protect U.S. personnel and Yezidis, a minority sect concentrated in northern Iraq, who have been targeted by militants and are stranded on a mountain. Conflict in the OPEC producer has so far spared production in Iraq’s south, home to about three-quarters of its crude output. “U.S. approval of airstrikes moved the conflict to a new level, and made its extreme potential for danger in the region visible,” Eugen Weinberg , head of commodities research at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt , said by e-mail. Brent for September settlement gained as much […]