London (awp/afp) – Oil prices remained up on Thursday due to the increase in American crude reserves and the escalation around the Ukrainian conflict, with kyiv accusing Moscow of having targeted it with an intercontinental missile.
Around 12:30 GMT (1:30 p.m. CET), a barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in January gained 2.05% to $74.30.
Its American equivalent, the barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery the same month – of which this is the first day of use as a reference contract – gained 2.24% to 70.29 dollars.
Ukraine accused Russia on Thursday of having, for the first time, fired an intercontinental missile on its territory, using this vector of its nuclear deterrent without an atomic charge.
“An intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Russian region of Astrakhan” in the south of the country, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement.
“This is the first time. We have never had this type of missile before,” a source within this army told AFP.
This use, if confirmed, marks a new escalation, while Russia had said it was preparing an “appropriate” response to Ukraine's use of Western missiles on Russian territory, which Moscow had described as a red line.
However, “even if the outgoing American president authorized Ukraine to use American missiles to strike Russian territories”, Washington probably prohibited him from attacking the oil installations, “hence the reluctance of prices to rise significantly. more significant”, estimates Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Energy.
Another factor supporting prices, oil stocks recorded a surprise increase last week in the United States, according to the American Energy Information Agency (EIA) on Wednesday, which also highlighted a drop in the production.
Commercial crude reserves increased by 500,000 barrels during the week ended November 15, while analysts expected a slight decline of 85,000 barrels, an increase partly linked to the slowdown in refineries.
However, “disruptions in Norway”, at the Johan Sverdrup oil field, have been resolved and “production (from the Kazakh field) Tengiz should return to full capacity by the weekend”, after having been slowed down by works maintenance, notes Ole Hvalbye, analyst at SEB.
On Thursday, the Dutch TTF futures contract, considered the European benchmark, also climbed around 2.66% to 48.04 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), shortly after touching 48.27 euros per MWh, a new highest in more than a year, driven by the seasonal trend.
Although the share of Russian gas transported by pipeline in Europe has fallen sharply since the start of the conflict, “gas pipeline closures will likely limit volumes even further,” Tamas Varga also estimates.
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