Russian Strikes in Ukraine Push Prices to Multiyear Highs
Oil prices surged another 7% today. At peak intraday highs, WTI hit $105.14/bbl before settling at $103.41.
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Oil prices surged another 7% today. At peak intraday highs, WTI hit $105.14/bbl before settling at $103.41.
Oil prices closed up over 3% today, shooting up again on both continuing supply issues, and escalating tension at the Russia/Ukraine border.
Today saw WTI Crude prices break the $90/barrel threshold for the first time since 2014.
Continuing fallout over the downed Malaysian jetliner led to increased international tensions today (deja vu?). Russia called US accusations that it supplied the anti aircraft missles responsible "groundless". President Obama insisted that Russian involvement warranted further sanctions by Western nations. And thats what we saw happen this afternoon - Canada issued new sanctions targeting financial and energy related companies (much like the US sanctions from last week) and instituted travel bans on certain individuals.
(image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Wednesday's EIA report showed that the API projected Crude drops come to fruition, falling 1.78 million barrels. As we all saw this pushed up Crude & ULSD prices on the day, with ULSD closing up .0398 to 2.9275, and Crude up to 100.81, once again hanging by the new (unfortunately) benchmark of $100 we've all been hoping to drop from for quite some time now.
Brent ticked upwards this week as well on EU discussion of stricter sanctions on Russia. Putin had announced earlier this week that Russian troops had withdrawn from the border, but no such withdrawal happened according to everyone else in the area, so more sanctions are back on the table it appears. Economic sanctions on the world's second largest energy exporter are, unsurprisingly, not great for downward price pressure.