Oil prices rose on Wednesday as the market focused on potential supply disruptions due to sanctions against Russian tankers, although the growth was restrained by a lack of clarity on their impact, UNN writes with reference to Reuters.
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Futures for Brent crude oil rose 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $80.08 per barrel at 12:50 GMT (14:50 Kyiv time). US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 26 cents, or 0.34%, to $77.76.
The latest package of US sanctions on Russian oil could significantly disrupt the supply and distribution of Russian oil, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly oil market report on Wednesday, adding that "the full impact on the oil market and on access to Russian supplies is uncertain.
Concerns about a new package of sanctions seem to be supporting prices, along with the prospect of a weekly decline in US inventories, said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.
"It looks like tankers carrying Russian oil are having a hard time unloading their cargoes around the world, which could potentially cause some short-term shortages," he added.
The key question is how much Russian supply will be lost on the global market and whether alternative measures will be able to compensate for the deficit, said IG market strategist Yep Jun Rong.
OPEC, meanwhile, expects global oil demand to grow by 1.43 million barrels per day in 2026, maintaining the same growth rate as in 2025, the group of producers said on Wednesday.
The 2026 forecast is in line with OPEC's view that oil demand will continue to grow over the next two decades. This is in contrast to the IEA, which expects demand to peak this decade as the world shifts to cleaner energy.
The market also found some support in the fall in US oil inventories last week, market sources said, citing data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday.
According to forecasts, the price of Brent crude oil will fall by 8% to an average price of $74 per barrel in 2025 and drop to $66 in 2026, while the average price of WTI crude oil will be $70 in 2025 and fall to $62 in 2026, the publication writes.