By : Dr. Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, April 7, 2022
Oil prices rose again this Thursday, April 7, on fears of poor supply after new sanctions against Russia were announced Wednesday by Western powers.
[post_relacionado]International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $102.85 a barrel at 07:25 GMT, up 1.76% after closing the previous session at $101.07 a barrel.
The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) index was at $97.69 a barrel at the same time, up 1.52% after closing at $96.23 a barrel the previous session.
Oil prices fell to a low of $100.54 on Wednesday after the International Energy Agency announced that it is “moving forward with a collective oil stock release of 120 million barrels, including 60 million barrels contributed by the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The US Treasury Department, the G7 and the European Union (EU) announced full blockade sanctions on Wednesday against Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, and Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest private bank.
The fifth package of sanctions covers the release of assets in Sberbank and the Moscow Credit Bank and a ban on all new foreign investment in Russia.
Additionally, the UK has pledged to end all Russian coal and oil imports by the end of 2022.
US commercial crude oil inventories rose 0.6% during the week ending April 1, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Stocks increased by 2.4 million barrels to 412.4 million barrels compared to the market expectation of a 1.6 million barrel drop.