Oil prices surge Tuesday morning after Russia has ordered troops into two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, thereby causing nervousness in the market about a possible disruption of Russian oil export, reports Reuters.

A barrel of European reference oil Brent trades Tuesday morning for USD 96.78 against USD 75.17 Monday afternoon. US benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate sells concurrently for USD 93.86 against USD 92.46.

The market is waiting, the news agency writes, to see whether Russian energy export will be disrupted if the country moves forward with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and thus risks Western powers imposing sanctions.

Vivek Dhar, analyst at Commonwealth Bank, tells the news agency that it’s unlikely that US and European governments will apply oil or gas sanctions on Russia if the country invades Ukraine further. Doing so would ”inflict pain” on the West amid an energy crunch.

Russia, however, could choose to withhold fuel supply if the country tries to retaliate for other sanctions applied by Western states, Reuters writes.

According to the news agency, JP Morgan analysts forecast oil prices jumping to USD 125 a barrel already in Q2 this year, projecting a further price increase to USD 150 per barrel in 2023.

Tuesday morning, one troy ounce of gold trades for USD 1,907.69 against USD 18,896.33 Monday afternoon.

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