Crude oil futures remained elevated through the morning trading in Europe on Friday, with the market factoring in heightened geopolitical tension following a US airstrike in Iraq which killed a leading Iranian general. At 1039 GMT the front-month ICE Brent March crude futures was trading at $69.26/b, up more than 4% from Thursday’s settle of $66.25/b, while the front-month NYMEX February light sweet crude futures contract was $2.67/b higher at $63.87/b. Front-month Brent crude has not settled above the $70/b level since May 22 last year. Iran has vowed to respond to the attack, in which the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s foreign wing, General Qassim Soleimani, was killed, raising the risk of serious disruption to the region’s oil industry. “This is a seismic event in the region,” Jason Bordoff, director of the Center […]