ETF Securities has listed four new Brent crude oil exchange-traded commodity products on the London Stock Exchange in a bid to capitalise on soaring oil prices.

The four new products give investors long, leveraged, short and forward exposures to Brent crude, which the company believes is seen as the new global benchmark for oil. ETF Securities also plans to list them on the Deutsche Börse in the near future.

The firm said that three-quarters of delegates surveyed at its annual investment conference earlier this year expected tensions in the Middle East to escalate. The vast majority also said that this would affect their investment decisions.

The price of one barrel of Brent crude oil is currently $125, up from $110/barrel at the end of January. In dollar-terms, it is still below its all-time high in 2008 when it hit $147/barrel, but it is at similar levels in euro and sterling.

“Supply constraints rather than strong underlying demand appear to be the main driver,” said Andrew Morris, managing director of Signature, the investment arm of Rowan Dartington. “While political uncertainty in the Middle East has been with us for some time now, developments in Iran have started to take a rather more worrying course with a very dangerous game of nuclear brinkmanship now unfolding.

“Retaliatory sanctions on Iranian oil have had an understandable effect on supply; this has been augmented by the bizarre situation in Sudan where having agreed to split into two countries, the north and south failed to agree on how Sudanese oil reserves would be divided,” Morris said. “Finally, while not yet a major concern, reports suggest that Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader, would appear to be in declining health following a resurgence of cancer.”