Oil prices dip Friday as a number of oil-consuming nations plan a release of oil from strategic reserves, writes Reuters.

A barrel of European reference crude Brent trades at USD 99.93 Friday morning against USD 100.99 Thursday afternoon. Simultaneously, US counterpart West Texas Intermediate costs USD 95.60 per barrel against USD 96.42 Thursday afternoon.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and numerous Western sanctions against Russia have caused a frenzy in the global oil market. As a result, a spate of nations have decided to release 240 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves – corresponding to approximately 1 million barrels of crude per day from May until the end of December.

”Although this is the biggest release since the stockpile was created in 1980, it will fail to ultimately change the fundamentals in the oil market. It is likely to delay further increases in output from key producers,” note analysts from ANZ Research to Reuters and add that the release of oil will likely cap the price increases.

Meanwhile, China has imposed extensive lockdowns as a result of a Covid-19 outbreak, also putting a damper on demand for crude, which the oil prices also reflect.

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