Daily Times

Crude oil prices rose over 8 percent on Wednesday amid energy security threat as the Ukraine-Russia crisis intensifies. As of 1235 hours GMT, Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, gained $8.44 (+8.04 percent) to reach $113.41 a barrel. The benchmark has gained $15.50 a barrel during the last three days. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the main oil benchmark for North America, reached $111.82 a barrel, up by $8.41 (+8.13 percent). The contract has gained around $20.23 a barrel during the last three days.

The price for Opec Basket was recorded at $99.22 a barrel with an increase of 2.64 percent, Arab Light was available at $105.87 a barrel with an increase of 8.77 percent and the price of Russian Sokol jumped to $98.68 a barrel with 1.22 percent increase.

The IEA agreed on Tuesday to release 60 million barrels of oil from emergency stocks to bring stability to energy markets as the Russia-Ukraine crisis intensifies. The Paris-based agency said Russia’s military offensive has come against a backdrop of “already tight global oil markets, heightened price volatility, commercial inventories that are at their lowest level since 2014 and a limited ability of producers to provide additional supply in the short term”.

Russia, one of the top crude producers in the world, has come under a slew of sanctions targeting its economy and banking industry but not its energy and commodity industries. In 2020, the country produced about 10.2 million bpd of crude oil and natural gas condensate, placing it second after the US, with Saudi Arabia in third place, according to the 2021 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. About 60 percent of Russia’s oil exports go to Europe and another 20 percent to China.