Daily Times

Rising crude oil prices took a breather on Tuesday amid a slightly weaker US dollar. As of 1235 hours GMT, Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, gained $0.01 (+0.01 percent) to reach $86.76 a barrel. Similarly, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the main oil benchmark for North America, went up by $0.11 (+0.13 percent) to $82.06 a barrel.

On the other hand, the price of Arab Light increased by $0.69 (+0.79 percent) to reach $87.72 a barrel. Similarly, the price of Russian Sokol increased by $0.84 (+1.06 percent) to $80.09 a barrel. On the other hand, the price for Opec Basket decreased to $84.88 from $85.56 a barrel.

Crude oil prices ended flat last week as Brent inched up to $85.43 from $85.34 a barrel, showing an increase of $0.09 on a week-on-week (WoW) basis. However, WTI closed the week down to $80.63 from $81.04 a barrel, registering a weekly decrease of $0.41 (-0.51 percent).

On Sunday, Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles on Ukraine’s western region of Lviv. The assault on Ukraine follows recent attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, with several crude refineries hit in drone strikes this month alone. Ukraine’s drone strikes caused a fire at Rosneft’s largest refinery on March 13. There have been strikes on two oil terminals, four oil and fuel depots and 14 refineries this year.

While the damage at most energy complexes has been repaired quickly, between 600,000 to 900,000 barrels per day of refining capacity is set to remain offline for “several weeks to months”, Japanese lender MUFG said in a report last week.

The latest Russian attack – through 57 missiles and drones that also hit targets in Kyiv – follows two days of intense aerial bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. It is the biggest bombardment campaign Moscow has launched in about two years of full-scale war.

Russia has also linked the Moscow concert hall attack that killed 137 people to Ukraine after it arrested 11 people. Gunmen went on a rampage on Friday at the Crocus City Hall in a suburb on the northern edge of Moscow. The ISIS terrorist group’s Afghanistan affiliate claimed responsibility for the attack.