By Srinivas Chowdary Sunkara // petrobazaar // 15th Feb, 2022.
Brent oil futures prices for April delivery rose $2.04 or 2.16pct a barrel on London based ICE futures Europe exchange. WTI oil futures prices for March delivery climbed $2.36 or 2.53% to settle at $95.46 a barrel on NYMEX last night. In Shanghai, Crude oil main contract futures prices spiked 26.8 Yuan to 576.8 Yuan/bbl while MCX crude oil front month contract futures prices advanced Rs.176 or 2.54 pct to close at Rs.7094 a barrel yesterday. Brent premium over WTI narrowed down to $1.02 a barrel during the session.
The world crude oil price index curves demonstrated upward momentum yesterday on Russia-Ukraine tensions. Both the benchmarks touched seven years high during the session after Ukraine president declared a 'day of unity' for Feb-16, a date that some Western media have cited as a possible start of Russian invasion. Analysts predict that any disruption of oil flows from this region would send Brent and WTI prices skyrocketing higher far above $100 amid increase in demand across the market. IEA said that gap between OPEC+ target and actual output widened and urged the group to close the gap. On the other hand, Markets are closely watching U.S-Iran Nuclear talks that could release 1.3 Mb of supply.
Turning to technicals side, Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 28 Mb in the six most important petroleum futures and options. Portfolio mangers are still bullish on the outlook for prices. Rapidly escalating prices for oil and other commodities intensified concerns about inflation and the possibility of countermeasures from central banks as per Mr.Kemp. Today, Asian markets are opened in red, Clawing back some of yesterday's profits. Markets are hyper-sensitive to any news of Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Good day to all.
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