Brent price exceeds $61 for first time since 2020

The price of April futures for Brent crude oil has exceeded $61 per barrel for the first time since January last year, Report informs, referring to the London stock exchange ICE.

By 08:30 (GMT +4), the price of Brent crude was $61.03 per barrel. Before that, the price of Brent rose above $61 on January 7, 2020 – to $61.35.

WTI crude oil is also growing in price. The highest price for its March futures on the morning of February 9 was $58.49 per barrel, a record since April 2019.

Oil has been gradually increasing in price since the end of October 2020 amid positive news on vaccines’ development and the gradual lifting of restrictive measures in several countries.

Earlier, last year, crude fell in price due to the pandemic and the termination of the OPEC+ deal. At the end of April 2020, Brent futures fell to $33.71 per barrel, while WTI dropped to $29.05.

However, despite the currently observed rise in prices for crude, Russian oil is getting cheaper. On February 1, the Russian Ministry of Finance reported that Urals prices in January fell by 11.8 percent compared to the same period last year - to $54.41 per barrel.

In October 2020, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that oil price might rise to $70 per barrel by 2025 if, during 2021, all the measures taken in different countries to stimulate the economy amid the pandemic crisis are effective.