London --  Oil prices spiked close to an eight-month high as traders fretted over heightened tensions between key crude producer Iran and the United States.

 “Alongside the return of economic optimism, oil is also finding support from the continuing tensions between Iran and the United States as sabre-rattling is stepped up on both sides,” said Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg.

Meanwhile the European Union governments have been yet divided over whether to impose an Iranian oil ban, because Greece, Spain and other nations that import Iran’s crude insists their objections to the Iranian oil ban. 

A main issue for EU to resolve is finding alternative sources of oil for countries that rely on Iranian crude. Spain represents 14.6 percent of Iranian oil imports to Europe, Greece 14.0 and Italy 13.1 percent.

Nigeria, another OPEC producer, faces a national strike from trade unions that could shut down large parts of the country’s oil industry from next week if the government failed to restore a scrapped fuel subsidy.

Crude stocks in the United States could have fallen more than expected last week, industry data showed.