Oil Updates — Crude climbs; EU bans most Russian oil; Russian oil output slightly up

RIYADH: Oil prices rose on Tuesday due to fueling worries of a tighter market, along with rising demand ahead of peak US and European summer driving season. 

Brent crude futures for July, which expires on Tuesday, gained 33 cents to $122 a barrel at 0054 GMT. The more active August contract rose 33 cents to $117.93.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were trading at $117.31 a barrel, up $2.24 from Friday’s close. There was no settlement on Monday due to a US public holiday.

EU leaders agree on Russian oil embargo

EU leaders have reached an agreement “in principle” on banning oil imports from Russia, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said early on Tuesday.

“I am very glad that the leaders were able to agree in principle on the sixth sanctions package,” she told reporters after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels.

“Council should now be able to finalize a ban on almost 90 percent of all Russian oil imports by the end of the year. This is an important step forward. On the remaining 10 percent, on these we will soon return to the issue of these remaining 10 percent of pipeline oil,” she added.

Russian oil output slightly up at 10.17 mln bpd

Russia raised oil production slightly to 10.17 million barrels per day between May 1 and 29, TASS news agency reported on Monday, still leaving output nearly 1 million bpd below levels before the West imposed sanctions on Moscow.

Production from the world’s third-biggest producer after the US and Saudi Arabia dropped by about 10 percent to 10.05 million bpd in April from February, after some buyers postponed or refused Russian barrels due to sanctions.

TASS, citing a source familiar with preliminary oil and oil condensate production data, said output had been slightly restored to 10.17 million bpd on May 1-29. The report did not give a reason for the increase.

Alexander Novak, Russian deputy prime minister, said last week Russia would produce between 480 million tons to 500 million tons of oil this year, or 9.64 million bpd to 10.04 million bpd, depending on the external conditions.

(With input from Reuters)