Oil prices are rising in anticipation of new restrictions for the EU to buy Russian oil

July Brent oil futures rose 4.8% yesterday to $ 110.2 / barrel (+ 5% month-on-month), and June WTI oil futures rose 5.1% to a 2-week high $ 107.8 / barrel on news of new EU sanctions against Russia for continuing military aggression and committing war crimes against civilians.

Yesterday, the European Union proposed to abandon the purchase of Russian oil for 6 months and to ban the supply of Russian refined products until the end of the year, which will force European countries to look for new oil suppliers. The EU will also restrict all services related to the transportation of Russian oil, including financing and mediation. Analysts estimate that such steps will displace more than 4 million barrels of Russian oil a day from the EU market.

However, the rise in quotations limits the long-term lockdown caused by the coronavirus in China, which reduced oil demand by 1 million barrels / day. However, Libya reduced oil supplies by 16% in April to 819,000 barrels per day due to attacks by Russian-backed rebels on oil depots.

OPEC countries increased production by only 10,000 barrels per day to a maximum of 28,700 million barrels per day due to reduced supplies from Libya and Nigeria in April, although experts expected production to increase by 274,000 barrels per day.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, crude oil inventories in the United States rose unexpectedly by 1.3 million barrels last week, and gasoline inventories were 4.8% lower than the 5-year average.

Baker Hughes reports that the number of active oil rigs in the United States for the week of April 23-29 increased by 3 to 2-year high of 552 units.

The discount on Russian Urals oil has already reached 30-33%, so it is actively bought by Chinese companies, while Indian companies have announced the cessation of purchases of Russian oil.

Rising oil prices to $ 120-130 / barrel may significantly support rapeseed and corn prices in the near future.