China’s move to rebuild its strategic petroleum reserve using Russian oil would not breach US sanctions on Moscow, White House officials said on Thursday.
The US has led global efforts to ban trading in Russian oil over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, while China is in talks with Russia to buy oil for its strategic reserve.
The statement comes as oil prices rebounded from two days of losses in a volatile session, bolstered by weakness in the dollar and expectations that China could ease some lockdown restrictions that could boost demand.
Crude benchmarks continued their spate of wild swings, with both Brent and US crude rising by nearly $5 a barrel in the span of a few hours, recovering from losses earlier in the week.
“The market has been extremely volatile,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.
“The market is reacting to all sorts of different headlines hour to hour, and the movement in oil markets on a day-by-day basis getting even more exaggerated.”
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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