Oil prices continue to climb. At the same time, falling US oil reserves are stoking concerns regarding the global oil supply while Russia’s oil exports remain constrained by sanctions, writes Reuters.

A barrel of European reference crude Brent costs USD 117.06 Wednesday morning against USD 114.85 Tuesday afternoon. Concurrently, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate trades at USD 110.72 against USD 108.45 Tuesday.

The entirety of the oil market is awaiting the outcome of two meetings taking place Thursday when US President Joe Biden will take part in a meeting in the European Council as well as in an extraordinary NATO summit. Together with European heads of state, Biden will discuss additional sanctions against Russia.

”We expect continued high volatility through the rest of the week, and especially around Thursday’s NATO summit. But supply worries will remain elevated as long as the Russia-Ukraine peace talks remain deadlocked,” says founder of Vanda Insights Vandana Hari to Reuters.

Recent data from American Petroleum Institute show that US oil reserves dropped by 4.3 million barrels last week, directly contrary to analysts’ expectation of an increase of 100,000 barrels.

English edit: Christoffer Østergaard

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