This way, the price of hydrocarbons was not far from its historical record, which is US$147.50 in the case of Brent.
In the last few hours, it became known that the United States and its European allies are discussing imposing an embargo on oil from Russia, one of the harshest economic sanctions against Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine and that until now they had kept out of discussion for the impact it would have on the global economy.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said from Moldova that the administration of President Joe Biden has already begun discussing imposing an embargo on Russian crude exports. and that they are having “a very active discussion” with their European partners to analyze “in a coordinated manner” the possibility of prohibiting purchases of Russian oil.
To lower the pressure on the price of oil, the Biden administration seeks to ease oil sanctions on the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela, The Wall Street Journal reported. US officials have already had face-to-face meetings with Venezuelan officials in Caracas over the weekend, the newspaper said, to allow Venezuelan crude to return to the open international market.
Analysts at Bank of America said that if most of Russia’s oil exports are cut off, there could be a shortfall of 5 million barrels per day (bpd) or more, and that means oil prices could rise to u $s200.
According to projections of JPMorgan chase, the price of oil could reach US$185 by the end of the year. Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA), which reports to the OECD, agreed to release 60 million barrels of crude oil (around 4% of its strategic reserves) to try to curb price escalation, but the impact is limited. It is the fourth time that the IEA has taken such a measure, the previous ones being during the Gulf War (1991), Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the Libyan War (2011).
Until now, the United States and Europe have protected the energy sector from economic sanctions against Russia – which, for example, hit Sberbank and VTB, the two largest Russian banks, but left out the third, Gazprombank, linked to the gas company state.
“If the supply shortage doesn’t ease, oil may break past its all-time high,” said Howie Lee, an economist at OCBC bank in Singapore. “In the worst case scenario, meaning a total sanction on Russia’s energy exports, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brent above $200,” he added.
RRussia is the world’s leading exporter of crude oil. and petroleum products combined, with shipments of about 7 million bpd, or 7% of world supply. Some volumes of Kazakhstan’s oil exports from Russian ports have also faced complications.
In addition, it is the world’s third largest producer of crude oil. after USA and Saudi Arabia. Although the Americans could replace their imports of Russian crude through other countries, their European allies are more complicated: the country presided over by Vladimir Putin exports around 5 million barrels per dayof which almost half go to Europe, and another 2.7 million b/d in products derived from Petroleum.
On the other hand, the OPEC+from which Russia is part, it will not move a millimeter from its plan to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day, despite the chaos in the market, the spike in oil and the order of several countries.
Russia also accounts for about 40% of gas imports in Europe. The energy crisis at the end of 2021 and the war in Ukraine have highlighted the excessive dependence on Russian gas. The EU is expected to announce new measures on Tuesday to ensure energy security, which would include increasing gas imports from the US, Qatar, Norway, Egypt, Algeria and Azerbaijan.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
