The price of Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI) opened this Thursday with a rise of 4.6%, to 113.72 dollars a barrel, rebounding after the sharp drop it had experienced the previous day, when it gave up more than 12%.
At 9:05 am on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), WTI futures contracts for April delivery were up $5.02 from Wednesday’s close.
The price of benchmark crude oil in the US thus continued to be marked by the volatility that has dominated in recent days amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by many countries on Moscow.
After these punishments, especially the veto on imports of Russian crude oil announced by the United States, investors today continued to wonder how this gap can be filled.
The United Arab Emirates has already announced an expansion of its production, but analysts believe that prices will continue to rise unless OPEC and its partners do the same, with their eyes on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which have abundant spare capacity. .
“The unilateral increase of the Emirates without Saudi participation would not be at all sufficient to cover the deficiencies, real or perceived, in the market,” said expert Louise Dickson, from the firm Rystad Energy, in a note.
The US reference barrel is going through a week of great volatility in which it has gone from the peak of $130 registered on Sunday, a maximum not seen since the summer of 2008, to around $103 that it reached at its lowest point during the Wednesday session.
Investors were also aware of the contacts between Russia and Ukraine, which have not produced results so far.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Serguei Lavrov, met in Turkey, but were unable to advance on issues such as the opening of a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops, or to achieve a Stop the fire.
At the same time, the price of a barrel of Brent crude rose 4% in Europe, in reaction to statements by the United Arab Emirates, which cooled expectations of an increase in production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
At 8:55 a.m., a barrel of North Sea brent was up 4% to $115.38 after rising as much as 5.75% minutes earlier.
On Wednesday, the price of Brent also plummeted 13% and that of WTI 12%, impacted by a diplomatic opening by the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, and by a signal from the United Arab Emirates in favor of increasing production.
But this Thursday, that country affirmed that it will maintain its commitments as part of the OPEC + alliance of exporting countries, which includes Russia.
“The Emirates believe in the value that OPEC+ brings to the oil market. We are committed to the agreement within OPEC+ and the current monthly production adjustment mechanism,” Energy and Infrastructure Minister Suheil Al Mazruei tweeted on Thursday.
For their part, the members of the G7 called on oil and gas producing countries to “increase their deliveries” to deal with rising energy prices and the risks of shortages stemming from the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine causes “strong repercussions on international energy markets”, specifically, a “significant increase” in the price of oil, gas or (even) coal, the energy ministers of Ukraine affirmed in a joint statement. the G7 countries (United States, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Japan), after a videoconference meeting dedicated to Ukraine.
Therefore, “we ask the oil and gas producing countries to act responsibly and study their capacity to increase their international deliveries, since, above all, production is not at full capacity,” they added.
On the other hand, one of the members of the G7, the United Kingdom, asked the rest of the members on Tuesday to “end the use of Russian oil and gas”, due to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
But the countries of the European Union, highly dependent on Russian energy, do not want to prohibit its importation at the moment.
OPEC members have refused to speed up production and remain committed to a gradual increase of 400,000 barrels a day each month.
Russia is the world’s second largest exporter, behind Saudi Arabia. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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