(Hong Kong) The price of a barrel of oil from American WTI soared on Wednesday by almost 5%, and the barrel of Brent, the European benchmark for black gold, exceeded 110 dollars, pushed by the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Moscow.
Posted at 9:44 p.m.
The two black gold benchmarks thus reached new highs on Wednesday, at 108.64 dollars a barrel for West Texas Intermediate (WTI), and at 110.09 dollars for Brent.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the neighboring country prompted world powers to impose tough sanctions on Moscow, stoking market fears that Russian exports could be cut short.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), however, announced on Tuesday that its member countries would release 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to stabilize the market.
In his first State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, US President Joe Biden announced that the United States would release 30 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves to stabilize the market.
Russia is the second largest exporter of crude oil in the world and accounts for more than 40% of the European Union’s annual natural gas imports.
The conflict in Eastern Europe comes when prices were already soaring due to insufficient supply and a strong recovery in demand around the world caused by the lifting of restrictions against the coronavirus in many countries.
An OPEC meeting, during which Russia will be present, will be held on Wednesday. The possibility of increasing production in order to temper the rise in prices will be discussed.