West Texas Intermediate crude, the US oil standard, was traded at a price close to $93 a barrel, and the Brent global oil standard contracts were trading at regarding $94 a barrel, as the two crudes fell by regarding $2 per barrel compared to the high levels recorded earlier in the day.
This comes at a time when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he would suggest continuing diplomatic contacts with Western countries on the tension in Ukraine, which allayed fears of an armed conflict on the Russian-Ukrainian border.
“On the geopolitical front, tensions between Ukraine and Russia appear to be declining following a rapid escalation over the past week,” Bloomberg News quoted Robin Reddy, an analyst at Global X Management, which manages $2 billion in assets.
He added that the global oil market sees, in light of the recent diplomatic moves, a decrease in the possibilities of stopping Russian oil supplies to the market as a result of imposing sanctions on Russia if it invades Ukraine.
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude rose by 11 cents to $93.21 a barrel for delivery next March, in trading this morning in New York. Earlier in the day, the price of crude rose by 2% to $94.94 a barrel, its highest level since September 2014.
In the trading of the London Stock Exchange, the price of Brent crude fell by 20 cents to $94.24 a barrel, following it had risen by 2% earlier in the day.