New York. The price of Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI) rose 5.2% to $114.93 a barrel yesterday, pressured by a notable disruption to Russian oil exports due to a storm.
According to data at the end of operations on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for delivery in May added 5.66 dollars compared to the previous close.
Benchmark U.S. crude soared after Moscow warned that its oil exports will be cut in coming weeks by a million barrels a day, about 1% of global output, due to storm damage to a viaduct.
Texas also became more expensive due to a new weekly decline in commercial oil reserves, which have been below the average for this time of year for weeks due to limited supply and growing demand due to the exit from the crisis in the covid-19.
Volatility
Meanwhile, the market is following the war in Ukraine and reacting to the possibility of Western countries imposing additional sanctions on Russia, although the measure of the European veto on Russian crude that investors feared does not seem to materialize.
Experts point out that the week is volatile, especially in view of the NATO meeting scheduled for this Thursday and in which the US president, Joe Biden, will participate.
Elsewhere, natural gas contracts for April delivery rose more than four cents to $5.23 per thousand cubic feet, and gasoline contracts due the same month rose 11 cents to $3.44 a gallon.
