Bad news not only for motorists: oil and fuel prices continue to rise. Meanwhile, the EU is trying to restrict imports from Russia. That should drive prices up further.
Oil prices are rising. A mix of news catapulted the price of a barrel of North Sea Brent over the $120 mark, its highest level in two months. However, it is still a long way from the record high of more than $147 reached in 2008.
However, a barrel of Brent currently costs $124.7, about one percent more than yesterday. The price for a barrel of the US reference variety WTI climbed in a similar range to almost 116 dollars.
At the same time, the prices for petrol and diesel are rising just before the tank discount in Germany is due to take effect. The so-called gas-oil contract Europe, which is traded on the Atlanta-based stock exchange ICE, which specializes in futures trading, is approaching a record level, according to the "Financial Times". The reason for this are bottlenecks in the supply. The result: many motorists pay maximum prices at the petrol stations.
The sanctions imposed because of the war of aggression against Russia are primarily responsible for the price increase on the fuel market. Western countries want to stop or at least reduce imports. Europe covers a large part of its oil and fuel needs by purchasing from Russia.
The EU today launched a new attempt to agree on a ban on Russian oil imports. The EU Commission's draft initially only allows the import of oil transported by ship to be phased out. Oil transported via the Druzhba pipeline would be exempted until further notice. If the compromise proposal is accepted, the supply of crude oil on the world market should initially become scarce. This prospect also supports the prices.
The original proposal by the EU Commission envisaged ending the import of Russian crude oil completely in a few months because of the war instigated by Russia. However, this failed due to resistance, especially from Hungary. To this day, oil from Russia is delivered via the pipeline to refineries in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic as well as in Poland and eastern Germany. Germany and Poland have already announced that they want to become independent of Russian oil supplies by the end of this year, regardless of an embargo.
Prices are also given a further boost by news from China, which suggests increasing demand from the second-largest economy. In Shanghai, an economic and financial center with a huge port, the week-long corona lockdown will end on Thursday. All companies can then resume production.
In addition, the oil-producing countries around Saudi Arabia and Russia, which are members of OPEC, do not want to increase their output. The group meets on Thursday and has so far shown no willingness to expand production. The federal states had massively reduced funding in the first Corona year 2020 because prices had collapsed due to a lack of demand. Since then, they've ramped up production only a little.
