Oil prices climb on uncertainty over Keystone pipeline restart, Russian supplies

SINGAPORE  – Oil prices rose more than 1 percent in early Asian trade on Monday as a key Canada-United States crude pipeline stayed shut while Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to cut production in retaliation against a Western price cap on Russian oil exports.

Brent crude futures climbed 83 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $76.93 a barrel by 0020 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $71.92 a barrel, up 90 cents, or 1.3 percent.

On Sunday, Canada’s TC Energy said it has not yet determined the cause of the Keystone oil pipeline leak last week in the United States, while also not giving a timeline as to when the pipeline will resume operations.

The 622,000 barrel-per-day Keystone line is a critical artery shipping heavy Canadian crude from Alberta to refiners in the U.S. Midwest and the Gulf Coast and for exports.

Meanwhile Russia’s Putin said on Friday that his country, the world’s biggest exporter of energy, could cut oil production and will refuse to sell oil to any country that imposes a “stupid” price cap on Russian agreed by G7 nations.

While the uncertainty surrounding European Union sanctions on Russian oil and the related price cap kept volatility high on prices, the sanctions had limited impact on global markets so far, ANZ analysts said in a note.

Last week, Brent and WTI posted their biggest weekly losses in months and touched lows not seen since December 2021 as concerns over global recession and impact on oil demand weighed.