Oil prices extended their gains today and are set to rise further this week after Russia launched a new ballistic missile into Ukraine, the latest sign of continued escalation in the situation in Ukraine. It was expected to end the week.
The attack featured hypersonic intermediate-range missiles never before used in war and was carried out in response to Ukrainian attacks by US and British ATACMS missiles on Russian territory. This is especially true after President Vladimir Putin this week reiterated changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine that stipulate that a nuclear attack on a country that is not itself a nuclear-weapon state but receives support from a nuclear-weapon state would be permissible. There were concerns that use would escalate. A nuclear-armed country.
“There is uncertainty about the extent to which each party can launch an attack, which is spooking the oil market,” said energy analyst Vandana Hari. said Bloomberg.
At the time of writing, Brent crude oil was trading at $74.34 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate was trading at $70.23 per barrel, both rising on Thursday after posting a 2% gain on Thursday. . Perhaps the price increase could have been even more significant had it not been for the latest EIA weekly oil status report, which showed an increase in both crude oil and fuel.
“Production and U.S. refinery activity is expected to pick up next week, which will have a negative impact on both crude oil and major products,” said Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch & Associates. said Reuters.
in Note ING's Warren Patterson and Ewa Mantay wrote earlier this week that news that Iran was prepared to limit its stock of enriched uranium had dampened the impact of escalation in Russia and Ukraine on oil prices. This would reduce the risk of harsher U.S. sanctions. This would threaten the security of supply. They also noted that Norway's Johan Sverdrup field has returned to normal operations after a brief outage due to power outages.
Written by Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
