Oil prices steady after concerns over Russian supplies ease

The Wagner group’s mutiny had stirred alarm on global commodity markets

Global crude prices stabilized on Monday after an armed insurrection by the Wagner private military company was resolved in Russia, one of the world’s top energy exporters.

Brent crude futures were up nearly 0.72% at $74.38 per barrel by 07:25 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) traded 0.65% higher at $69.61. Both benchmarks gained as much as 1.3% in early Asian trade.

On Friday, the Wagner group led by Evgeny Prigozhin rebelled against Russia’s military leadership. The armed contractors managed to seize an army headquarters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, with some forces marching on Moscow. However, Prigozhin agreed to end the uprising and withdraw his forces in exchange for “security guarantees,” as part of a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday.

Oil markets were largely focused on whether the turmoil could disrupt global energy supplies, as Russia is ranked among the biggest producers and exporters of crude in the world.

“Collectively the world would have breathed a sigh of relief at least on the oil market side that the disruption in the Russian state did not go through the worst that people feared,” Alok Sinha, Standard Chartered global head of oil, gas and chemicals, said as cited by CNBC.

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The analyst added that if the mutiny had led to a disruption of oil supplies from the country, up to four million barrels per day could have been temporarily removed from the market.

“Now that kind of disruption even if it’s short term could have really roiled the markets really badly,” he stressed.

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