A envoy of Russia’s president today said the global energy market “cannot remain stable” without Russian oil, after Washington temporarily authorised the sale of Russian oil stored on vessels.
“The United States are, in fact, acknowledging the obvious: without Russian oil, the global energy market cannot remain stable,” wrote Kirill Dmitriev on the Telegram messaging platform.
The United States temporarily authorised the sale of Russian oil stored on ships due to the price surge since the start of the Iran war, the US Treasury Department announced on Thursday. The department issued a licence authorising the sale, until April 11, of Russian crude oil and derivatives loaded onto vessels before 00:01 on March 12.
Earlier in the week, US president Donald Trump had announced he would suspend some sanctions on oil “to bring prices down,” following a phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The Treasury had also previously announced it would allow India to trade Russian oil held at sea for 30 days.
Brent crude for May delivery rose more than 9% on Thursday and closed above $100 on the London futures market following Iran’s statements on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The North Sea benchmark closed on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in London at $100.46 — its highest price since 2022 and 9.22% above the previous session’s close of $91.98.
Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which around 20% of global seaborne hydrocarbon trade passes — should be prolonged. “The lever of the Ormuz blockade must absolutely be used,” Khamenei said in a speech read by a journalist on state television, AFP reported.
Read more about this topic: Oil: Brent rises above $100 despite strategic reserve release
The 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) “unanimously” decided to release 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves onto markets. “IEA countries will make 400 million barrels of oil available to the market to compensate for the supply loss due to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol in a video statement — the sixth time the agency has coordinated a strategic petroleum reserve release, and more than double the previous record intervention at the start of the war in Ukraine, when 182 million barrels were released.
