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Oil futures rose Friday as investors continue to monitor Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a day after crude briefly topped the $100-a-barrel threshold for the first time in seven years.
Crude edged lower as news reports said Russia was in favor of talks with Ukraine, though few details were available and traders remained cautious.
Price action
-
West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery
CL.1,
-0.59% CLJ22,
-0.59%
fell 30 cents, or 0.3%, to $92.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The U.S. benchmark on Thursday hit an intraday high of $100,54. -
April Brent crude
BRNJ22,
-1.27% ,
the global benchmark, was down $1.11, or 1.1%, at $97.97 a barrel, after trading as high as $105.79 on Thursday. The more actively traded May contract
BRN00,
-0.86% BRNK22,
-0.86%
fell 56 cents, or 0.6%, to $94.86 a barrel.
Market drivers
Crude saw choppy trade early Thursday, but were drifting lower after news reports, citing a summary of a call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping provided by China’s Foreign Ministry, said Russia was ready to conduct negotiations with Ukraine.
Oil ended with gains but well off session highs above $100 a barrel on Thursday, with the pullback tied by analysts to relief that a new round of sanctions announced by the U.S. and its allies against Moscow didn’t target Russia’s energy exports or cut the country off from the SWIFT payment system.
“This means that energy imports from Russia can still be paid for. The question now is how Russia will respond to the sanctions that have been decided, which will hit the banking sector and the technology industry hardest of all,” said Carsten Fritsch, commodity analyst at Commerzbank, in a note.
If Russia reacts by cutting back energy shipments, prices are likely to rise sharply again, he said, which also puts a focus on talks aimed at restoring Iran to the international nuclear accord, he said. “If U.S. sanctions on Iran were to be lifted, Iran would be able very quickly to place an additional 1.5 million to 2 million barrels of crude oil per day on the market,” he said.
Read: Potential for an Iran nuclear deal keeps oil rally in check
