Due to news of Russia launching military attacks in Ukraine, oil prices have jumped more than 5%, with prices per barrel coming in around $100.
U.S. crude futures jumped 5.23% to trade at $96.92 per barrel, while Brent crude futures crossed the $100 level for the first time since 2014, going up 5.4% to $102.07.
Natural gas prices have also seen a recent surge shooting up 5.39%.
Attacks began late Wednesday night, and the United Nations Security Council met in New York attempting to urge Putin not to go forward.
However, he has not stopped. Reuters reported that the Russian president had warned other countries there would be “consequences they have never seen” if any nation were to interfere with Russia’s actions.
Brent topped $100 much sooner than most analysts expected to, and Ellen Wald, the president of Transversal Consulting, told NBC News that the conflict in Ukraine is the direct reason why.
Wald also talked about the possibility of sanctions for Russia from the Biden administration at a time when supplies are already tight.
“Will they sanction Russian oil or gas? Because this would mean significant pain for even U.S. consumers. The United States does import Russian oil. In fact, there’s oil headed to the U.S. as we speak,” Wald said, NBC News reported.
She went on to discuss the difficulties of simply shipping oil now with military action being taken on the ground.
“Now that we’ve actually got this military operation happening on the ground, you have the prospect of physical inability to shift oil out of certain areas, particularly the Black Sea. So, I think we’re now seeing that factoring into prices as well,” Wald said Thursday.
Goldman Sachs released a report on Wednesday that estimated the impacts on energy prices should be limited due to the conflict in Ukraine.
“While Europe imports a large share of its natural gas consumption from Russia, the US is a net exporter of natural gas, and any spillover effects on U.S. gas prices should be modest,” analysts at Goldman Sachs said.
Still, while strategists at the bank expect a “modest impact on oil prices,” they shared “they see the risks as skewed to the upside because the oil market is already tight.”
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