Brent Oil Hovered Above $98 a Barrel

Brent oil hovered above $98 a barrel on February 28. Today in global markets, Brent oil is priced at $ 98.86 a barrel.

Brent oil, which went up to $ 101.99 on Friday, closed the day at $ 94.12. Today, at 09:09, the barrel of Brent oil, which increased by 5.03 percent compared to the closing, is trading at $ 98.86. At the same time, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil was traded at $96.45 a barrel. The rise in oil prices is due to the increasing concerns that the supply may shrink after Russia's attack on Ukraine. The fact that Western countries put into effect a large number of sanctions, including especially finance, energy and transportation, as well as trade and individual restrictions, in order to make Russia pay a heavy economic price for attacking Ukraine, also increased uncertainty in the markets. Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union (EU) Foreign Relations and Security Policy, said, "We are removing some Russian banks from SWIFT. We will implement restrictive measures that will paralyze the assets of the Russian Central Bank. With this measure, half of the Central Bank's reserves will be frozen." On the other hand, markets focused on the 26th Ministerial Meeting of the OPEC+ group on 2 March. At its previous meeting, the Group had decided to continue its plan of gradual production increase of 400 thousand barrels per day in March as well. Experts state that at the meeting where the group will decide on the production increase in April, the concerns about the contraction in supply may force the group to increase production. It was stated that the range of $99.66 to $100.30 can be viewed as resistance, and the range of $98.63 to $98.24 as support in Brent oil.