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Oil futures edged higher early Friday to cap a volatile week, buoyed as talks between Moscow and Kyiv appeared to make little progress.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery
CL.1,
+0.35% CLJ22,
+0.35%
rose 50 cents, or 0.5%, to $103.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, on track for a 5.4% weekly fall. -
May Brent crude
BRN00,
BRNK22,
,
the global benchmark, was up 47 cents, or 0.4%, at $107.11 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, headed for a 4.9% weekly decline.
Market drivers
Talks between Moscow and Kyiv appeared to stall after signs of optimism earlier this week that fueled a reversal to the downside by crude futures, which had hit nearly 14-year highs last week.
Russian forces continued to press attacks on Ukraine cities.
The Kremlin on Friday said Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a phone call, that Ukraine was stalling talks with “unrealistic proposals,” according to news reports. Meanwhile, world leaders are pushing for an investigation of Russia’s repeated attacks on civilian targets, including airstrikes on schools, hospitals and residential areas.
The U.S. and its allies have hit Russia with severe sanctions, with Washington also banning imports of Russian crude. Western sanctions have largely attempted to exempt Russian energy flows, but analysts and others have warned that Russian supply is likely to be sharply curtailed in the months ahead.
“The news from Russia and Ukraine with respect to the peace talks no longer sounded nearly as optimistic as it did before, which has doubtless prompted the market to reassess the situation,” said Carsten Fritsch, commodity analyst at Commerzbank, in a note.
Wednesday‘s forecast from the International Energy Agency also had an impact, he said, warning that the market could end up missing 3 million barrels a day of crude and oil products from Russia beginning in April.
