Oil prices surged another USD 5 per barrel on Wednesday after an agreement by the United States and other major governments to release supplies from strategic stockpiles failed to calm market anxiety over Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Brent crude, the international price standard, gained USD 5.43 to USD 110.40 per barrel in London.
The 31 members of the International Energy Agency, the club of major oil consumers, agreed Tuesday to release 60 million barrels of crude from stockpiles in hopes of calming markets.
“Markets dismissed the notion that 60 million barrels of strategic reserves released will be consequential to the risks of Russian supply jeopardized,” Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a report. “Russia pumps more than that in just six days.”