Crude prices volatile; Brent above $120/barrel
Premium- Ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and the decline in crude inventory in the US have intensified supply concerns and analysts expect the prices to remain elevated in the near term.
New Delhi: Crude oil prices traded on a volatile note on Wednesday amid persisting concerns over global supply crunch.
Brent crude prices surpassed the $123 per barrel mark before declining marginally as traders booked profits after the latest surge in prices. On Wednesday, crude prices rose around 4%.
At 9.50 am, the May contract of Brent on the Intercontinental Exchange was at $120.82 per barrel, lower by 0.64% from its previous close. The April contract of West Texas Intermediate on the NYMEX fell 1.01% to $113.77 per barrel.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and the decline in crude inventory in the US have intensified supply concerns and analysts expect the prices to remain elevated in the near term.
Rahul Kalantri, vice president for Commodities at Mehta Equities said weather-related disruption to Russian and Kazakh crude exports through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline added to worries over tight global supplies.
"Crude oil prices were also supported by the decline in the U.S. inventories. As per the EIA report released on Wednesday crude oil inventories in the US declined by 2.5 million barrels last week," he said.
Domestic retail prices of petrol and diesel, however, remained static, after increasing for two straight days. Prices of transport fuels rose by ₹1.60 per litre in total during the past two days, as daily price revision resumed on March 22 after a gap of over four months.
In the national capital, petrol is now priced at ₹97.01 and diesel is priced at ₹88.27 per litre.
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The retail prices are expected to rise further given the significant surge in oil prices of late. A report by Kotak Institutional Equities said that OMCs will have to raise diesel prices by ₹13.1-24.9 per litre and ₹10.6-22.3 a litre on petrol at an underlying crude price of $100-120 per bbl.
Crude prices have been on the boil after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, with Brent soaring to a near 14-year high of $139.13 per barrel on 7 March. Prices have, however, eased since then.
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