New York. The price of Texas intermediate oil (WTI) closed yesterday with a decrease of 2.6% and stood at 107.67 dollars a barrel, hitting the brakes after several days of increases derived from the war in Ukraine.
According to data at the end of operations on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for delivery in April cut 2.93 dollars from the previous close. The reference barrel in the United States fell after becoming more expensive by nearly 15% in the last two days alone due to the risks posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine for global supply, which have propelled it to a price not seen in eleven years.
“We expect Russian oil exports to fall by 1 million barrels per day due to the indirect impact of sanctions and voluntary actions by companies,” Jarand Rystad, chief executive officer of energy market analyst firm Rystad Energy, said in a note. . A week after Russian troops began the invasion of Ukraine by order of President Vladimir Putin, the market is also reacting to the possibility that the West will extend these economic sanctions to Russia’s energy sector. Before the war in Eastern Europe, the energy market was already very tight due to supply difficulties in absorbing the growing global demand derived from the recovery from the covid-19 crisis. The countries integrated into the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed on Tuesday to release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves to curb the rise in prices, although some analysts believe that it will not be enough.
Meanwhile, the OPEC + alliance decided yesterday to stick to its plan to gradually increase production agreed in the summer of 2021 and will add 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day to its supplies in April, despite international calls to open the taps more to recover the pact with Iran, in which the US participates indirectly.
