Oil prices surge $5 per barrel despite release of supplies

Beijing: Oil prices surged another USD 5 per barrel on Wednesday after an agreement by the United States and other major governments to release supplies from strategic stockpiles failed to calm market anxiety over Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose USD 5.24 per barrel to USD 108.60 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international price standard, gained USD 5.43 to USD 110.40 per barrel in London.

The 31 members of the International Energy Agency, the club of major oil consumers, agreed Tuesday to release 60 million barrels of crude from stockpiles in hopes of calming markets.

That failed to calm concern about disruption in supplies from Russia, the second-biggest exporter behind Saudi Arabia.

“Markets dismissed the notion that 60 million barrels of strategic reserves released will be consequential to the risks of Russian supply jeopardized,” Tan Boon Heng of Mizuho Bank said in a report. “Russia pumps more than that in just six days.”