Crude oil surges significantly to $109 per barrel as countries look for options other than Russia

• Oil prices have surged to their highest since 2014 on fears of supply disruption from one of the biggest oil producers, Russia, after it invaded Ukraine.
• Although oil trade in Russia is exempted from sanctions, several nations are shunning oil to avoid unwittingly violating sanctions.
• Russia is one of the world's top oil producers, exporting reportedly around 4-5 million barrels per day of crude.

Oil prices have surged significantly by 43% so far this year mostly because of fear of oil disruption from one of the biggest oil producers, Russia, after it invaded Ukraine. On Wednesday, crude oil prices stood at $109 per barrel.

Although oil trade in Russia is exempted from sanctions imposed by western countries, several nations are shunning oil from the country to avoid unwittingly violating sanctions.

Fears of further disruption in oil supply were exaggerated after countries started looking for other options to import oil from, if not Russia. The world's biggest shipping firm, AP Moeller-Maersk halted container movement to and from Russia, while Britain has banned all ships with any Russian connection from entering its ports, said a report by Reuters.

Also, major oil and gas companies, including BP and Shell PLC , have announced plans to exit Russian operations and joint ventures.

Even the US has started declining shipments from Russia into the country.

“Global energy security is under threat, putting the world economy at risk during a fragile stage of the recovery,” International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol reportedly said in a statement.

@StockGurukul Crude is Heading Towards $120 dollars very soon .........I am citing from the levels of 99 that crude is all set to break it's 2015 highs on daily chart, RSI is Red hot🔥We have discussed on many spaces that crude is going to give pain to India's growth aspiration as deficit widens.India's crude oil import bill surpass $100 billion Dollar nearly double of last fiscal year. @Stocktwits @StocktwitsIndia #crudeoil #crudeprices #inflation #indianeconomy

— (@StockGurukul) March 02, 2022

The Indian economy could be the worst hit because of the jump in oil prices as the country imports 80% of its oil needs and any rise in oil price increases the import bill.

While the oil prices were already tight before Russia invaded Ukraine, it got worse after the major oil producer executed a war.

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