Brent Oil Reached Above $117 A Barrel

Brent oil reached above $117 a barrel on March 3. Today, Brent oil is priced at $117.16 a barrel in global markets.

Brent oil, which closed the day at $ 112.9 yesterday, increased by 3.77 percent compared to the closing at 08:54 am today, and the barrel of Brent oil increased to $ 117.16. At the same time, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil was traded at $114,2 a barrel. The barrel price of Brent oil has hit its highest level since July 2014. The rise in prices was driven by the Western countries' sanctions against Russia and the concerns that possible counter-sanctions from Russia would disrupt supply. In a week since Russia launched a military operation in eastern Ukraine, Brent oil rose 19.3 percent to $117. After the economic sanctions announced by the USA and European countries against Russia, bp, Equinor and Shell withdrew from their investments in the country. French energy company TotalEnergies has announced that it will not transfer capital to new projects in Russia. Finally, the US energy company ExxonMobil announced that it will cease its operations in the Sakhalin-1 natural gas and oil production field in Russia and will not make any new investments in the country. In addition, the 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Saudi Arabia and the energy and oil ministers of 10 non-OPEC oil producing countries led by Russia met yesterday. At the meeting, it was decided to continue the gradual production increase plan of 400 thousand barrels per day in April as well. In the statement made by OPEC, it was noted that the current oil market fundamentals and outlook point to a balanced market, and that price volatility stems from geopolitical developments, not changes in market fundamentals. The US Energy Information Administration announced that commercial crude oil stocks in the country decreased by 2 million 600 thousand barrels (0.6 percent) last week, to approximately 413 million 400 thousand barrels. The market expectation was that inventories would increase by 2 million 796 thousand barrels.