Price of oil jumps as Russia begins invasion of Ukraine

/ 24th February 2022 /

The price of oil has jumped, with Brent surging to over $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014.

Overnight Russia began their invasion of Ukraine, with bombing across the country including in the capital Kyiv.

There have been concerns over the past few weeks that a war in Europe could disrupt the supply of energy, with Germany announcing that they had asked regulators to stop the certification process for Nord Stream 2, the $10bn pipeline built to traffic gas directly from Russia to Germany.

While Russian President Putin called the overnight attack a special military operation, the Minister for Defence in Kyiv sent a tweet saying Russia has launched a full-scale invasion of the country.

Brent oil jumped $5.22 or 5.4% to $102.6, reaching a high of $102.48 early this morning. In the US, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures added $4.85 to the cost of their barrels leaving them at an eight-year high of $96.95 a barrel, an increase of 5.3%.

Natural gas prices also jumped 6.19%.

Brent jumped $5.22 or 5.4% to $102.6, reaching a high of $102.48 early this morning.

Analyst for Kpler, a leading commodity data & analytics solutions in the US, Matthew Smyth said there may not be an immediate issue for energy supply, telling CNBC that because both Europe and Russia are very interconnected, each side is reliant on the other.

"We’re not likely to see the supply side of things interrupted, even though everything else is escalating."

In an early-morning address, Putin said Russia had invaded Ukraine and it was a "special military operation" in the Donbas region to "demilitarize" the area, Extra.ie reports.

Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv as well as Odesa and Kharkiv following Vladimir Putin’s announcement that the military operation had begun.