ISLAMABAD: Crude oil prices slid over one percent on Thursday but continued to trade at elevated levels, a day after the Opec+ agreed to add 400,000 barrels of crude to the market in March. As of 1325 hours GMT, Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, shed $1.09 (-1.22 percent) to reach $88.38 a barrel. On the other hand, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price reached $87.04 a barrel, down by $1.28 (-1.45 percent). Brent and WTI hit their highest levels since October 2014 on Friday, at $91.70 and $88.84 respectively. They gained about 15 percent in January. The price for Opec Basket was recorded at $90.46 a barrel with a loss of 0.47 percent, Arab Light was available at $88.15 a barrel with a decrease of 0.27 percent and the price of Russian Sokol slipped to $89.63 a barrel with 0.40 percent decrease. TLTP
Oil has been on a remarkable run in recent weeks, driven by very bullish fundamentals as disrupted supply struggled to keep up with strong demand. Crude also stayed buoyant because geopolitical tensions continue to rise in Eastern Europe. On Wednesday, the US approved the deployment of 3,000 troops to Eastern Europe, in addition to the 8,500 troops it placed on high alert after Russia stationed thousands of military personnel along the border with Ukraine.
Russia, one of the world’s top oil producers, further boosted its troop presence over the weekend in a sign of a potential escalation that could derail the flow of global energy supplies.
Depleting oil inventories in the US, the world’s largest economy, is also supporting prices. US oil inventories declined by a million barrels for the week ending January 28 from the previous week, according to a new report from the Energy Information Administration. The simultaneous blend of depleting inventories, thinning spare capacity and structural underinvestments is leading to turn even more bullish on oil.
The total investment in the upstream sector of the oil and gas sector fell 23 percent below pre-coronavirus levels to $341 billion in 2021 amid green transition efforts, the International Energy Forum said last year.
