Russia-Ukraine tensions intensify, energy price volatility Crude oil futures closed lower for two consecutive days

News on March 11, against the background of continued tensions between Russia and Ukraine, crude oil futures prices gave up earlier gains to close slightly lower
.
The day before, crude oil futures posted the biggest one-day percentage drop in nearly two years
.

West Texas Intermediate for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $2.
68, or 2.
5 percent, to $106.
02 a barrel
.
The U.
S.
benchmark stock index fell 12 percent on Wednesday, its biggest drop since Nov
.
26.
The global benchmark Brent crude fell $1.
81 to $109.
33 a barrel in May, down 13.
2% in the previous session, the biggest one-day percentage drop since April 21
, 2020.
West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude both closed at near 14-year highs on Tuesday and their lowest since
March 1 on Thursday, according to Dow Jones market data.

Natural gas prices rose 2.
3% in April to $4.
631/MMBtu
.
Gasoline prices fell 4.
2 percent in April to $3.
157 a gallon, and heating oil prices fell nearly 4.
9 percent to $3.
296 a gallon in April
.

Crude oil prices rose
early Thursday as the UAE energy minister downplayed claims of an increase in output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said late Wednesday that the country believes in the value OPEC+ brings to the oil market and is committed to the OPEC+ deal and its existing monthly output adjustment mechanism
.

Earlier, the UAE's ambassador to the United States said in a statement on Twitter: "We support increasing production and will encourage OPEC to consider increasing production levels
.
"

OPEC+, including Russia, has consistently resisted calls to speed up production increases and instead continues to increase production by 400,000 b/d per month, but it struggles to meet even given the limited spare capacity of member countries
.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are considered to be among the few member states with the ability to
significantly increase production.

Oil traders have been considering how the world will
fill the supply gap that a comprehensive Western embargo on Russian oil will create after the United States acted earlier this week to ban imports of Russian crude.
Analysts believe that in this case, oil prices may reach $200 per barrel or even higher
.

Meanwhile, ICE said it will raise the margin requirement for the ICE Eurofutures May Brent crude futures contract by 32%
starting Friday.
Margin is the amount of money
an investor must invest in order to trade and hold futures contracts.

Tariq Zahir, managing member of Tyche Capital Advisors, said Russia is the real problem with oil, while Saudi Arabia is the country
that can immediately supply oil to the market.
However, Saudi Arabia has not received a call from our government asking for increased oil supplies
.
If the situation in Eastern Europe deteriorates, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude could easily rise to $130 or more
, he said.
Oil price volatility is expected to continue, with prices likely to rise or fall by $
8 overall.

The Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers met in Turkey in the early hours of Thursday morning but did not achieve a breakthrough
.
At the moment, Russian troops continue their offensive against Ukrainian cities and the invasion enters its second week
.

Data released by the U.
S.
Energy Information Administration showed that domestic natural gas supplies fell by 124 billion cubic feet in the week ended March 4, a larger-than-expected
decline.