Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices retreated below $100 per barrel on Thursday after earlier hitting $105 per barrel as the United States prepared yet another round of sanctions on Russia in order to punish the country for its attack on Ukraine.
The decision of the US to exclude energy from its sanction plans caused the price of the Brent to fall by 2.19 per cent or $2.12 to $98.96 per barrel yesterday as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) jumped by 0.96 per cent or 88 cents to $92.98 a barrel.
American President Joe Biden recapped existing sanctions and announced new ones saying that the sanctions are purposefully designed to maximize the long-term pain inflicted on Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an attack on Ukraine early Thursday after months of military buildup along the border.
The directive came days after the Kremlin leader formally recognized the independence of two pro-Moscow separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Reports showed explosions in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv as the crisis took different turns.
Ukraine has declared martial law, with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy calling on Ukrainians to defend the country on the cities’ streets, and offering to arm any citizens willing to join the fight.
The US has also sanctioned Russian banks that together hold around $1 trillion in assets while additional Russian elites and their family members.
Canada, Britain, the European Union, Australia and Japan were also among the countries to announce the first wave of sanctions against Russia earlier this week, targeting banks and wealthy individuals.
None of the first sanctions announced by these countries targeted any Russian bank that deals in Russian oil and gas transactions.
Also, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that U.S. crude oil inventories had added 4.5 million barrels in the week to February 18.
This compared with a build of 1.1 million barrels for the previous week.
On the nuclear talk front, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator has called on Western partners in the talks in Vienna to take certain decisions to seal a deal on reviving a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement that can see more than 1 million barrels per day of oil return to the market.
