New York. The price of Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI) rose 4% to 103.28 dollars a barrel, once again breaking the psychological barrier of 100 dollars, after last week’s sharp drop, in which the black gold lost more than 12% of its value.
According to data at the end of operations on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for delivery in May gained 4.01 dollars compared to the previous close. The calls for new sanctions against Russia, after the discovery of dead civilians in the city of Bucha, on the outskirts of kyiv, have reawakened fears that these may be directed against oil.
“From a geopolitical point of view, more sanctions against Russia are called for, as the international community now accuses Russia of war crimes following the discovery of a mass grave outside kyiv; and oil is the main candidate for additional sanctions, ”said the president of the Sevens Report group, Tom Essaye, in a note.
The reference
The benchmark crude oil in the US once again exceeded the psychological barrier of 100 dollars, after last week its price registered its worst drop in nearly two years after leaving more than 12%, encouraged by the announcement US to release crude oil reserves and the subsequent one of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the same direction.
On Friday, the members of the IEA agreed to take this measure to combat price volatility in the market, although they did not detail the amount that they will put up for sale.
The ministers stressed that the war in Ukraine “continues to cause significant tension in oil markets, leading to increased price volatility” while inventories are “at their lowest level since 2014,” the note added.
Shortly after, US President Joe Biden announced that more than 30 IEA countries will join the US in putting “tens of millions” of barrels of oil on the market in order to stem the price rise.
The IEA already agreed on March 1, a week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to release 60 million barrels of oil from its members’ strategic reserves around the world.
In the case of the US, it is the third time that Biden has ordered the use of strategic reserves: he released 50 million in November and another 30 million on March 1, although on those occasions there was no significant impact on oil prices. gasoline, diesel and other fuels derived from petroleum.
Elsewhere, natural gas contracts for May delivery fell less than a cent to $5.71 per thousand cubic feet, and gasoline contracts due the same month rose four cents to $3.19 a gallon.
