Disruption to oil supply in Kazakhstan pushes price up

London — Oil prices rose on Tuesday, recovering some of the previous session’s losses as Kazakhstan’s supplies continued to be disrupted and major producers showed no sign of being in a hurry to boost output significantly.

Brent crude rose $1.41, or 1.3%, to $113.89 a barrel at 8.48am GMT, and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 95c, or 0.9%, at $106.91. Both benchmarks had lost about 7% on Monday.

“There was an overreaction on Monday and the market is reconsidering it,” UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

“Oil production disruption in Russia finally become visible, Kazakh crude production took a hit in recent days, and gasoline and jet demand in Europe and the US is still solid.”

Kazakhstan’s giant Tengiz and Kashagan fields cut oil output on March 27 after huge drops in intake to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline due to maintenance on its terminal, two sources said.

The producer group Opec+ was also expected to stick to its for a modest rise in May at this week’s meeting, despite a surge in prices due to the Ukraine crisis and calls from the US and other consumers for more supply.

United Arab Emirates energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said on Tuesday that the mission of OPEC+ was to stabilise markets and come up with as much supply as possible.

He said squeezing any partner out of the oil alliance, which includes Opec, Russia and others, would only increase prices.

Oil prices had come under pressure earlier on Tuesday, falling as much as $2, ahead of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia to be held in Turkey on Tuesday, the first discussions in more than two weeks.

Sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine have disrupted oil supplies, driving prices higher.

But a lockdown in Shanghai to curb rising coronavirus cases was expected to hit fuel demand in China, the world’s biggest importer. Shanghai accounts for about 4% of China’s oil consumption, ANZ Research analysts said.

“China’s zero-Covid-19 policy is bringing some relief to the oil market, albeit involuntarily, which is very tight due to the supply outages from Russia,” said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.

Reuters