Oil prices regain losses after new sanctions on Russia

By Zeynep Beyza Kilic

ANKARA (AA) - Oil prices on Thursday recovered losses made on Wednesday, sustained by deficient supply concerns after fresh sanctions on Russia threaten to instigate economic isolation in the country.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $102.85 per barrel at 0725 GMT for a 1.76% increase after closing the previous session at $101.07 a barrel.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $97.69 per barrel at the same time for a 1.52% gain after the previous session closed at $96.23 a barrel.

Oil prices dropped to as low as $100.54 on Wednesday after the International Energy Agency announced it is "moving ahead with a collective oil stock release of 120 million barrels, including 60 million barrels contributed by the US as part of its overall draw from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve."

Prices regained some losses on Thursday as new sanctions on Russia by Western powers were introduced.

On Wednesday, the US Treasury, G7 and the EU announced full blocking sanctions on Sberbank, Russia's largest state-owned bank, and Alfa-Bank, Russia's largest private bank. The fifth round of sanctions encompasses an asset free on Sberbank and the Credit Bank of Moscow and a ban on all new outward investments in Russia.

Additionally, the UK vowed to end all imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of 2022.

Limiting further price rises, US commercial crude oil inventories increased 0.6% during the week ending April 1, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

Stocks rose by 2.4 million barrels to 412.4 million barrels compared to the market expectation for a fall of 1.6 million barrels.