(New York) Oil prices continued their sharp rise on Wednesday, having already jumped more than 6% in trading the day before, as the war stalemate in Ukraine reignited fears over gold supplies. black.
Posted yesterday at 3:45 p.m.
A barrel of Brent North Sea oil for June delivery gained 3.95% to $108.78.
A barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery rose 3.62% to $104.25.
Although both crude benchmarks have retreated from their multi-year highs reached in early March, prices are still up more than 35% year-to-date.
The swelling of American crude inventories (+9.4 million barrels for the week ended April 8) did not discourage the market, which attributes this unexpected increase to a temporary reduction in refinery capacity. And the US government has again drawn on strategic reserves and domestic demand remains honorable, explained John Kilduff of Again Capital.
In addition, “concerns about supplies are resurfacing in the context of the ongoing conflict” in Ukraine and “Moscow’s refusal to restart peace talks,” noted Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
More than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol, the port city in southeastern Ukraine, besieged for weeks, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.
For his part, the president of the United States Joe Biden has for the first time in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of carrying out a “genocide” in Ukraine, which “suggests a new strengthening of sanctions” , according to M.me Streeter.
“It is also becoming clear that the planned release of 240 million barrels by IEA member countries will not help resolve the imbalance between supply and demand, which is also supporting prices,” added Victoria Scholar, analyst. at Interactive Investor.
“The market is trying to price in the risk of Western sanctions on Russian oil as well as the improvement in China’s economic outlook with the lifting of restrictions in Shanghai,” she explains.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), however, revised world oil demand down slightly on Wednesday due to confinements in China.