Oil fluctuates as swelling geopolitical risks whipsaw prices

​Oil switched between gains and losses as a report of an attack on an oil tanker offered another injection of political risk into the market, after a turbulent 24 hours.

Brent oil added as much as one per cent in London before trading little changed. An oil tanker off the coast of Oman was struck by a bomb-carrying drone on Tuesday night, the Associate Press reported, citing a Mideast-based defense official. 

The news was the latest sign of geopolitical risk in the oil market, coming the day after a rocket hit a Polish village near the Ukrainian border. A section of the Druzhba oil pipeline, Europe’s largest crude oil conduit, also remains offline after disruption to its power supply, though it is expected to restart soon.