Oil prices have fallen to their lowest levels since December 2021. It is becoming increasingly clear to analysts that the effects of China’s rebound and sanctions against Russia have been offset.
This is discussed in the material Barron’s. Futures for West Texas Intermediate crude, a US benchmark, fell to $65.17 a barrel on Friday, down 4.7% from Thursday’s settlement. Brent crude, the international standard, fell as much as 4.4% to $71.40 a barrel.
Both products recovered slightly around noon but were still trading lower on the same day. Brent is down about 15% in the last 10 days alone.
US wants Russia to keep selling oil
At the same time, according to the Financial Times, the US authorities have privately urged the world’s largest oil traders to trade in Russian oil – but only if transactions are made within the established price ceiling ($60/bbl). In this case, traders will not be threatened with any sanctions or other types of punishment.
Analysts explain: the US authorities decided to discuss agreements with traders with Russian oil in order to ensure stable supplies of raw materials to the world market – and thus prevent price spikes.
As GLOBAL HAPPENINGS reported, Russia managed to keep about $227 billion abroad received in 2022 from exports. However, about 80 billion of these funds are held in the form of cash, real estate and investments. The reason for this, analysts call the delay of Europe with sanctions against the energy sector of the Russian Federation.
Source: Obozrevatel
I am a journalist who writes about economics and business. I have worked in the news industry for over 5 years, most recently as an author at Global Happenings. My work has focused on covering the economy news, and I have written extensively on topics such as unemployment rates, housing prices, and the financial crisis. I am also an avid reader and have been known to write about books that interest me.
