WTI rises to new weekly highs in the $114.00 zone

• Oil bulls remain in control with WTI rising over $5.0 on the day at the $114.00 zone.
• WTI has now recovered more than 50% of its retracement from multi-year highs near $130 to $93 earlier this month.
• Traders have cited a major Russian pipeline outage, a bullish US inventory report and expectations of more sanctions as a bullish opportunity.

With the bulls seemingly now back in command in the global oil markets, WTI futures of the month above are trading near session highs in the $114.00 area. Prices rose over $5.50 on the day, taking the week’s gains to over $9.0 and meaning that WTI has now recovered over 50% of its pullback from previous monthly highs in the $130 zone. up to the region of 93$. Traders point to an announcement by Russia that more than 1 million barrels per day (more than 1% of global supply) in exports through its Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline, which runs through Khazakstan, has been halted due to berths. damaged by storms.

“Prices are rising mainly on the loss of Novorossiisk CPC Blend crude exports, which accounts for about 1.3 million barrels per day of exports, adding more bullish fuel to the fire as the drop in Russian crude exports finally seems to be on track,” said an analyst at Kpler. The immediate drop in Russian exports as a result of apparent maintenance problems comes against the backdrop of the harsh sanctions imposed by Western nations on the Russian economy in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

And more sanctions may be forthcoming in the coming days, with EU nations reportedly divided to implement a Russian oil import ban and with US President Joe Biden set to hit the EU on Wednesday. . The US president will participate in a series of emergency NATO and EU summits as leaders. “By the end of April you will know what the total loss of Russian oil is,” said Trafigura’s Ben Luckock at the FT Global Commodities Summit, who predicted a record pullback and that WTI could hit $150 by the summer and $200 at a later date.

Elsewhere, the latest official weekly US inventory numbers were bullish, with mainline crude oil inventories posting a higher-than-expected draw of over 2.5 million barrels and gasoline stocks also falling more than expected. expected. Meanwhile, US production was unchanged at 11.6 million barrels per day. Oil prices rose modestly on the data, but WTI was unable to convincingly break above $115.00.

Additional technical levels