RIYADH: After a week of volatility, oil prices have again started soaring in the market.
As of 08.00 a.m Saudi time, Brent crude was priced at 111.7 per barrel, while the West Texas Intermediate was at 107 a barrel.
EU working on “clever mechanisms” to target Sberbank
The European Union’s forthcoming sanctions on Russia will target banks, in particular, Sberbank, as well as oil, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, told a German newspaper.
“We are looking further at the banking sector, especially Sberbank, which accounts for 37 percent of the Russian banking sector. And, of course, there are energy issues,” she said.
The EU has so far spared Russia’s largest bank from previous sanctions rounds because it, along with Gazprombank, is one of the main channels for payments for Russian oil and gas, which EU countries have been buying despite the conflict in Ukraine.
She also said that the EU was working on “clever mechanisms” so that oil could also be included in the next sanctions.
Iraq pressurized to increase oil output
Iraq was pressured to increase its oil production outside the remit of OPEC’s policy on output, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said on Saturday.
He also told Al Hadath TV that OPEC was committed to providing the oil supplies needed to compensate for any shortages.
Fire under control at Pemex’s refinery
Mexican state oil company Pemex said on Saturday that it had brought under control a fire at its Salina Cruz refinery in the southern Oaxaca state without any injuries to personnel.
The fire, which started on Friday, had engulfed a gasoline storage tank, sending a dense plume of black smoke billowing from inside the refinery.
Pemex said firefighters had “concluded the work of suffocation and cooling” of the tank.
Fuel ship sinking: Countries extend help to Tunisia
Some countries have offered to help Tunisia prevent damage to the environment after a merchant ship carrying up to one thousand tons of oil sank off the coast of Gabes, the Tunisian defense ministry said on Sunday.
The ship heading from Equatorial Guinea to Malta sank on Friday and the Tunisian navy rescued all seven crew members.
The vessel carried between 750 tons and one thousand tons of fuel and sent a distress call seven miles away from Gabes to which the Tunisian navy responded, the officials said.
The defense ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters that to control the environmental damage, the Tunisian navy will work with countries that have expressed their desire to help.
Local media said that Italy had offered to help and that it is expected to send a naval vessel specialized in dealing with marine disasters.
Macron vows to exit oil, coal and gas
French President Emmanuel Macron promised on Saturday to make France the “first great nation” to stop using oil, coal and gas as energy sources, in a pitch to young and green voters he fears could abstain in next week’s election runoff.
In a rally in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, which voted massively for left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round of voting, Macron sought to widen what opinion polls show as a small lead over his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.
Ahead of the April 24 runoff, the presidential race is being fought on the left, with both contenders seeking to attract voters who chose Melenchon in the first round last Sunday.
Macron said he would put his next prime minister directly in charge of what he called “green planning,” appealing to left-wing voters’ nostalgia for post-war Communist-inspired central planning while tapping into 21st-century worries about climate change.
“I have heard the anxiety among our young people,” Macron told flag-waving supporters at a park overlooking the Old Port in Marseille, France’s second city.
(With inputs from Reuters)
