NEW YORK- Oil prices rebounded by 1 percent on Friday to end the week nearly unchanged as investors weighed the diminishing prospects of a quick end to the Ukraine war that could bring back more Russian energy supplies to Western markets.
Brent crude futures settled 70 cents, or 1 percent, higher at $70.58 a barrel, after falling 1.5 percent in the previous session. US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) closed at $67.18 a barrel, up 63 cents, or 1 percent, after losing 1.7 percent on Thursday.
Both benchmarks ended the week little changed from last Friday, when Brent settled at $70.36 and WTI at $67.04.
“Brent oil has hovered around the $70 mark for the past two weeks. Whether it will remain at this level in the coming week depends on the political news situation,” Commerzbank analysts said in a note.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow supported a US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but sought a number of clarifications and conditions that appeared to rule out a quick end to the fighting.
“If the prospect for a ceasefire continues to be pushed into the future, the market would expect Russian oil to be under sanctions for an extended period of time,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates.
On Friday, Trump again urged Russia to agree to a ceasefire proposal, saying on his private social media platform that he would extract the US from what he called a “real ‘mess’ with Russia”.
