Oil prices held steady on Tuesday, awaiting concrete progress in negotiations aimed at ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea, for delivery in February, whose last day of trading was today, closed stable (-0.03%) at $61.92.
Its US equivalent, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate, for delivery the same month, barely fell 0.22% to $57.95.
“The market has retreated in recent months on hopes of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine,” John Kilduff of Again Capital told AFP.
“But many questions remain unanswered and (Russian President) Vladimir Putin does not seem very reassuring” about a possible end to the conflict, the analyst added.
kyiv on Tuesday noted the lack of evidence to support Moscow’s accusations of a Ukrainian drone attack on a Putin residence, as the Kremlin warned that such an attack would harden its stance in negotiations.
This sudden increase in diplomatic tension came shortly after US and Ukrainian statements pointing to progress in talks towards an agreement.
Without an agreement, “sanctions could be further intensified against Russia” and its oil, according to Kilduff, which would be likely to support crude oil prices.
Also in the geopolitical sphere, US President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that the United States had destroyed a dock used by vessels accused of participating in drug trafficking in Venezuela.
The United States has been exerting military pressure in the Caribbean for months and accuses the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, of leading a vast drug trafficking network.
Maduro denies this and assures that Washington seeks to overthrow him to seize the country’s oil.
However, “this is not a significant supply, so the market receives this news with some distance,” Kilduff said.
Venezuela has the most important proven oil reserves in the world, but it is far from being one of the most important producers.
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