London — Oil traders prepared for the possibility of $100 a barrel before year-end after Brent crude hovered close to its highest since November 2014 on Monday.

“Nobody wants to get caught short, full in the knowledge that more Iranian barrels are poised to be removed from the market,” Stephen Brennock, oil analyst at PVM Oil Associates, said in a research note published on Monday.

“We are moving into a world where you have lower inventories, lower spare capacity and less protection for buyers,” John Driscoll, chief strategist at JTD Energy Services, told CNBC on Monday.

“So $100 a barrel has become more likely, whether we get there or not, it might be a little early to say,” he added.

International benchmark Brent crude traded at around $83.01 on Monday, up around 0.34 percent, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) stood at around $73.42, more than 0.2 percent higher.

Investors have indicated that they see prices rising, loading up on options that give the holder the right to buy Brent crude at $90 a barrel by the end of October. Open interest in call options at $90 a barrel has risen by nearly 12,000 lots in the past week to 38,000 lots, or 38 million barrels.

With about 1.5 million barrels per day of Iranian oil expected to go offline on Nov. 4, prices could “rocket higher with the flashy $100 per barrel price tag indeed a reasonable-sounding target,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore. — Agencies