Oil prices continued to rise on Friday, propelling Brent above $90 a barrel once more, as escalating geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and Russia still pose a risk to crude supply.
The price of a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in March gained 0.77% to 90.03 dollars, its highest since October 2014 already reached on Wednesday.
In New York, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery the same month ended up 0.24% at 86.82 dollars.
Global oil markets extended their run higher and climbed once more to seven-year highs as military tensions in Ukraine and tighter supply thwarted the Fed’s announcement this week. on interest rates.
On Wednesday, by evoking a rate hike in March and possible successive rises therefollowing, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell had revived the dollar, which had momentarily affected crude prices on Thursday.
But on Friday, both Brent and WTI had quickly recovered their losses, “which were minor anyway”, commented Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank.
Fears of a flare-up in geopolitical tensions have already swept the bearish factors away.
Continued uncertainty around the Ukraine crisis might jeopardize a significant portion of Russian oil flows if diplomatic talks break down and energy export sanctions materialize.
“The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a significant risk factor”, also notes Bjarne Schieldrop, analyst at Seb, “even if most observers believe that the probability of a total invasion is low”.
The United States and the European Union said in a joint statement on Friday that they were working to supply “additional volumes of natural gas” for Europe, in order to deal with a possible backlash from an invasion. Russian from Ukraine.
Next week, investors will also turn their gaze to the next meeting of OPEC + (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners), scheduled for Wednesday. It “should not shake the markets, with a further increase of 400,000 barrels per day for March already well reported”, said Han Tan, analyst at Exinity.
