A barrel of Brent, the benchmark oil in Europe, soared more than 5% on Tuesday (1st), due to the war in Ukraine, which causes investor fears of disruptions in Russian energy supplies, after several Western sanctions against Moscow. .
At 8:55 am ET, a barrel of North Sea Brent for May delivery was up 5.01% to $102.88, while US WTI was up 3.83% to $99.58 a barrel.
Brent is thus approaching the maximum value reached in 2014 on the eve of an important meeting of OPEC countries and producers that are not part of the cartel, including Russia.
To try to contain prices, member states of the International Energy Agency (IEA) have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil reserves, according to Japan’s industry minister.
Half of the volume will come from the US, Koichi Hagiuda told reporters after an extraordinary ministerial meeting of the 31-member agency, which mainly represents industrialized nations.
Founded in 1974 as an energy watchdog and headquartered in Paris, the IEA defines one of its key roles as helping to “coordinate a collective response to major disruptions in oil supplies.”
Prices have been rising as some buyers shun Russian barrels, while supplies around the world have tightened in the face of rising demand, with production struggling to keep up.
Sanctions create disorder in Russian oil trade, with ships being turned away
Russian oil producers are delaying sales offers due to a lack of buyers, with importers in Europe and Asia rejecting Russian boats amid sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine war. Moscow classifies its actions in the neighboring country as a “special operation”.
Russian oil company Surgutneftegaz added 80,000 tonnes of Ural oil to its March shipment schedule at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk and offered the cargo in a public offering, traders said, although previous attempts to sell cargoes through bids have failed. .
The Malaysian government said a Russian-flagged oil tanker, targeted by US sanctions, would not be able to call at the port of Kuala Linggi, underlining global pressure to strangle Moscow-linked companies.
Russia’s energy supply is not a direct target of the sanctions, but there are growing concerns that oil and gas exports will be hit by the repercussions of restrictions imposed on other sectors.
Energy companies BP and Shell have abandoned multibillion-dollar positions in Russia, while banks, airlines, automakers and others have cut shipments, ended partnerships and labeled Moscow’s shares unacceptable.
Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft plans to increase oil supplies to 40.3 million tonnes via its network in March from 35.7 million tonnes in February, according to the RIA news agency.
Transneft, which handles more than 80% of Russia’s total oil production, also plans to increase shipments to China this month via the ESPO pipeline to 2.48 million tonnes from 2.22 million tonnes. tonnes in February, according to the TASS news agency.
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