Everything Russian becomes "toxic" - even oil
Russia continues its war against Ukraine, and over the past day it has increased rocket and air attacks on residential areas. The entire civilized world condemns such actions and tries to avoid cooperation as much as possible with the aggressor, who in the 21st century launched a senseless war against the peaceful people of Ukraine.
Sanctions against Russia continue to be tightened, and more and more global companies refuse to work with the aggressor to increase pressure on the Kremlin authorities from Russians, who must understand that the war is being waged not only by Putin, but also by hundreds of thousands of military personnel with the tacit consent of all Russian citizens. Everything Russian is now becoming toxic-Russian athletes, musicians, tourists are being driven from Western countries, concerts and competitions are being canceled.
Russia is currently unable to sell its oil, as global companies are prohibited from buying oil from Russian companies or companies that have Russian or Russian-related founders in order not to fall under sanctions. The lack of supplies led to a sharp jump in oil prices, although earlier traders hoped that Russia would supply oil to the world market, despite the sanctions. However, the global flash mob don't buy Russian and don't support the aggressor is starting to work.
Oil traders, Sea Carriers, insurance companies and banks that carry out trade financing refuse to deal with Russian oil in order not to fall under secondary sanctions.
Yesterday, The Argus monitoring agency reported that Russian Urals oil is trading against the benchmark – Brent oil with a record discount of 1 15/barrel. The cost of freight of oil tankers for Russian oil has increased, according to Reuters, by 5 times. The price of Sea oil shipments from the ports of Primorsk and Novorossiysk has reached its highest level since 2005.
According to Reuters estimates, Russian oil exports account for 8% of the global market. May Brent crude futures on London ICE Futures have risen 17% to.110/barrel since the beginning of the week (as of the morning of March 2), and April WTI crude futures on the New York electronic Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)-by 18% to. 108.5/barrel.
Crude oil is rising in price, despite the decision of the International Energy Agency (IEA) to use almost 60 million barrels from the strategic reserves of the United States, Europe and Asia, which will happen for the first time since the Libyan civil war in 2011.
Oil prices support statements by the energy ministers of Iraq and Nigeria that OPEC+ does not need to increase production, even if prices exceed.100/barrel. On Wednesday, OPEC + will discuss production levels and possibly agree to increase it in April by 400 thousand barrels/day. In February, crude oil production in OPEC countries increased by 410 thousand barrels/day to 28.55 million barrels/day, which is the highest in 1-3/4 years.
It is worth noting that the reserves of crude oil stored on tankers around the world continue to grow due to vessels that are loaded in Russia, but are not sent due to the inability to pay. According to Vortexa, crude oil reserves on tankers that were stored for at least 7 days, as of February 25, increased by 3.2% to 94.2 million barrels.
