By YANGE IKYAA
The call for a coordinated release of Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) by the United States last week as one of the multiple sanctions against Russia seems to have fallen on deaf ears, with no nation from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) joining the initiative.
This international body is an intergovernmental economic organization comprising of 38 member-countries, which was founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.
As a result of this US snub by allies, Brent price has remained range-bound, trading around $108 per barrel as of Tuesday.
However, the Russia-Ukraine war and its increasingly global ramifications continue to dominate the narratives of the oil market, with the European Union still shying away from an outright ban on Russian oil and gas.
The latest round of suggested sanctions continues to revolve around an EU ban on imports of Russian coal rather than oil and gas, as well as barring Russia-flagged vessels from accessing European ports, though even these might be watered down in later stages.