10-year High: Ukraine crisis pushes crude price close to $120 a barrel

Continuing hostilities between Russia and Ukraine pushed crude oil price to a 10-year high of $119.84 per barrel on Thursday.

The global hike in crude oil prices led by the Russia-Ukraine crisis is expected to push India's domestic prices of petrol and diesel by over Rs 22 per litre.

The crisis as well as fears of lower supplies along with robust global demand pushed the Brent-indexed crude oil price higher.

Crude oil prices have surged by nearly 20 per cent in the last three days on fear of tight supplies.

The Brent-index crude oil prices rose by 4 per cent to $119.84 per barrel on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Brent-indexed crude oil prices rose to over $111 per barrel. It had risen to $102 per barrel on Tuesday from Monday's $98 per barrel mark.

At present, Russia is the third largest producer of crude oil in the world. It is feared that sanctions against Russia will curtail global supplies and stifle growth.

On the other hand, India is a major crude oil importer, and for it, the price range is a cause of concern as it may add Rs 20 to Rs 22 to petrol and diesel selling prices if the OMCs decide to revise the current rates.

"The mad rush in crude oil continued on lower supply fears as the western countries are tightening their grip on Russia with more sanctions," said Tapan Patel, Senior Analyst, Commodities, HDFC Securities.

"The OPEC plus nations kept oil output quota unchanged to agreed levels adding worries on global supply," Patel added.

Anuj Gupta, IIFL Securities VP, Research, said: "We are expecting it may trade further higher towards $125 levels. Geo-political tensions, supply shortages will support high crude prices."

Kshitij Purohit, Lead of Commodities and Currencies, CapitalVia Global Research, said: "The price has gone up because of the inventory deficit by (-) 2.6 million barrels which was published by EIA on Wednesday.

"Also, Russia is likely to announce their production cut to increase their strategic reserve to tackle current geo-political tension."