Futures on US West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil rose more than 1% in volatile trade on Thursday, with the market affected by supply concerns stemming from potential European Union ban on Russian oil and after an announcement by Libya of decreased oil output.
“EU discussions to ban or phase out Russian oil purchases, the biggest influence on crude prices in recent days, are on the back-burner but not settled yet, which may limit crude prices to a relatively narrow range on a daily settlement basis,” Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Yesterday OPEC member Libya announced it was losing over 550,000 barrels per day of oil production as a result of blockades at key fields and export terminals by groups citing political demands.
In other news, Kazakh Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov said on Wednesday the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s Black Sea terminal could go back to full capacity this week.
“The resumption of CPC crude deliveries will be somewhat offset by continuing outages in Libya and the likelihood of more Russian crude getting locked out of market in face of an EU ban,” Vanda Insights’ Hari noted.
As of 7:40 GMT on Thursday WTI Crude Oil Futures were gaining 1.75% to trade at $103.98 per barrel. Yesterday the black liquid went down as low as $99.88 per barrel, which has been its weakest price level since April 13th ($99.87 per barrel).
At the same time, Brent Oil Futures were advancing 1.35% on the day to trade at $108.72 per barrel. Yesterday the commodity went down as low as $104.71 per barrel, which has been its weakest price level since April 13th ($104.12 per barrel).
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