WTI advances gradually around $106.00 ahead of OPEC meet and slippage in oil stockpiles

• WTI has attracted bids below $100.00 amid uncertainty over the OPEC meeting.
• The cumulative effect of OPEC uncertainty and reduction in oil inventories has underpinned WTI prices.
• Oil prices may shoot firmly if an embargo on Russian oil by Europe is put in place.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), futures on NYMEX, has advanced towards $106.40 but is likely to remain lackluster as investors are keeping eye on the outcome of the OPEC meeting, which is due on Thursday. The agenda of the OPEC meeting is likely to revolve around the elevation of the oil supply to contain the prohibited oil from Moscow.

Russia had attracted plenty of sanctions from the Western leaders after its invasion of Ukraine. Right from the collapse of the International SWIFT banking system to the embargo on its oil, the Russian economy is losing financial stability. Overnight prohibition of Russian oil from the US and discussions on the embargo of Russian oil by the European Union (EU) has made their oil stockpiles toxic for them.

Although Russia has cut off its military activity from northern Ukraine and Kyiv in order to match the outcome of the first face-to-face negotiations between the officials of Moscow and Kyiv in Turkey, Western leaders are likely to stick with their sanctions amid destruction and death in Ukraine.

Apart from the uncertainty over the OPEC meeting, significant slippage in the US oil stockpiles reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has underpinned the oil prices. The US EIA reported a slippage in oil stockpiles by -3.449M against the market consensus of -1.022M and prior print of -2.508M.