Today, Wednesday, the price of Brent crude reached the threshold of 113 dollars a barrel, while the price of West Texas Intermediate crude jumped by more than seven percent.
The “Arab Energy” platform, which specializes in energy affairs, said that this rise was caused by the growing fears over oil supplies due to the continuing Russian military operation on Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Moscow.
The price of Brent crude futures rose by 6.5% to reach $113, while the price of West Texas Intermediate crude futures increased by 7.42% to reach $110.2, bringing it to the highest level since 2013.
The increasing sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia raise fears that Russian exports of oil and gas will be halted, which is reflected in a rise in prices.
Russian supplies constitute about 40 percent of European gas needs, while about 2.3 million barrels of Russian crude travel west every day through a network of pipelines.
“Assuming there is no quick resolution to this conflict in Ukraine, we fear global GDP will fall by 0.5%-1.0%,” Paul Jackson, global head of asset allocation research, Invesco, said on Tuesday.
He emphasized that “this decline is sufficient to exacerbate the ongoing slowdown but not sufficient to fully stagnate,” although some parts of Europe may experience a recession and inflation is also likely to remain higher for a longer period.
With Russia being one of the world’s largest oil producers, Brent crude futures rose $4.51, or 4.6 percent, to $102.75 a barrel, a value just below a seven-year high of $105.79, after the start of military operations in Ukraine. .
Natural gas prices in Europe have also jumped about 15 percent, and oil and gas prices have risen nearly 60 percent since fears of an invasion of Ukraine began mounting in November.
Therefore, Louise Dixon, a senior oil market analyst at Rystad Energy, stressed that “the fragile situation in Ukraine and financial and energy sanctions against Russia will exacerbate the energy crisis,” noting that “oil will be much higher than $100 per barrel in the near term and even higher than That is if the conflict escalates further.”