Brent Crude Oil Trades at $118.20 Amid Sanctions Uncertainty

Global uncertainty trailing the Russia-Ukraine war continued to dictate the price of crude oil and its volatility. The Brent crude oil, the global benchmark for Nigerian oil, rebounded to $120.29 a barrel at 2:29 pm Nigerian time following a decline to $96 last week.

The surge in price is a result of growing concerns over European Union member nations’ ongoing discussions to impose sanctions on Russian crude oil.

The sanction, according to oil traders, could push oil above the current level given global demand for the commodity.

“Oil markets are a mess of volatility at the moment,” said Jeffrey Halley, an analyst at brokerage OANDA. “You don’t have to be a genius to know what Russia reducing its flows, or closing it, will do to an already tight market.

The global oil market remained on the edge over the possibility of additional sanctions on Russia, the world’s second-largest exporter of the commodity, after its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

U.S. President Joe Biden is set to announce more Russian sanctions when he meets with European leaders on Thursday in Brussels, including an emergency meeting of NATO.

Adding to concerns about supply, Russian and Kazakhstan oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) from the Black Sea may fall by up to 1 million barrels per day (bpd), or 1% of global oil production, because of storm-damaged berths, a Russian official said on Tuesday.