Oil Prices Fall, Continuing The Downtrend Of Last Week

View of the Phillips 66 Los Angeles refinery (foreground), which processes domestic and imported crude oil into gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel, as well as storage tanks for petroleum products at the Kinder Morgan Carson terminal (background) in sunset in Carson. , California, USA, March 11, 2022. Photo taken on March 11, 2022. Photo taken from a drone. REUTERS/Bing Guan

Russia shows interest in negotiations with Ukraine – US official
Kremlin says next Russian-Ukrainian talks will take place on Monday
Russia counts on Chinese sanctions assistance

NEW YORK, March 13 – Oil prices tumbled early in the session on Sunday, extending their fall last week as a US official said Russia was showing signs of readiness for substantive talks on Ukraine.

Brent crude futures fell $1.82, or 1.6%, to $110.85 a barrel by 6:47 pm ET (2247 GMT). WTI futures fell $2.41, or 2.2%, to $106.92 a barrel.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, which Moscow calls a “special operation”, rattled global energy markets. The price of Brent crude fell 4.8% last week after hitting $139.13 on March 7. Oil from the US recorded a weekly fall of 5.7% after hitting a high of $130.50 on March 7. The last time both contracts reached these price peaks was in 2008.

Investors were worried about a tighter oil market following Russia’s move. Prices fell last week as traders assessed potential improvements in the supply outlook that were disrupted by the Ukrainian crisis. More

Russia is showing signs that it may be ready for substantive talks on Ukraine, even as Moscow intends to “destroy” its neighbor, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Sunday.

Russian-Ukrainian talks are not currently underway, but will continue on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday, RIA Novosti reported.

Peskov made the comment after Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said Ukraine and Russia were actively negotiating on Sunday.

Russia said Sunday it was counting on China to help it withstand the economic hit from Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, but the United States warned Beijing not to provide that lifeline. More

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who is scheduled to meet with senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday, warned Beijing that he would “absolutely” face consequences if he helped Moscow evade sweeping sanctions over the war in Ukraine. More

Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Richard Chang

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