MELBOURNE: Oil prices inched up on Friday but were set to fall around 3 per cent for the week after consuming countries agreed to release 240 million barrels of oil from emergency stocks to help offset disrupted Russian supply.
Analysts said the emergency oil release, amounting to about 1 million barrels per day from May to the end of the year, might cap price rises in the short term, but would not fully cover volumes lost from Russia due to sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a"special operation". The release may deter producers, including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and US shale producers, from accelerating output increases even with oil prices around US$100 a barrel, they said.