Crude oil prices made a U-turn and dropped sharply, over 6 per cent, to about $106 a barrel.
Global MarketsEdited by Rahul Karunakar (with inputs from Reuters)Updated: March 29, 2022 7:11 pm IST
Crude oil prices made a U-turn and dropped sharply, over 6 per cent, to about $106 a barrel after Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said, “the results of today’s meeting are sufficient for a meeting at the leaders’ level.”
A Russian negotiator welcomed “meaningful” progress with Ukrainian representatives at peace talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul over a month after Russia invaded its neighbour.
The benchmark Brent crude futures fell over 6 per cent to about $106 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down over 6 per cent at $99.6.
Both those contracts fell about 7 per cent on Monday, as Shanghai’s two-stage lockdown offset concerns about tight supply over nine days which was expected to hit fuel demand in China, the world’s largest oil importer.
While the benchmark Brent crude oil started Tuesday extending losses from the previous session, it rebounded and was up nearly 0.4 per cent to trade around $113 after falling as low as $109.97 a barrel earlier in the session.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in Turkey for the first face-to-face talks in nearly three weeks. The top Russian negotiator said the talks were “constructive”.
“The results of today’s meeting are sufficient for a meeting at the leaders’ level,” Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said, raising the possibility of a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin that Russia had shot down as recently as Monday as being “counterproductive”.
Sanctions imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine have curtailed oil supply and sent prices to 14-year highs earlier this month.