Oil prices soared more than 6 percent, touching their highest since 2008 on Monday after the United States and European allies mull a Russian oil import ban while delays in the potential return of Iranian crude to global markets fuelled tight supply fears.

Oil is at $128 a barrel – what triggered is very sharp upsurge is – basically the US Secretary of State going on CNN, on a programme called State of the Union, and saying that, “We are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil, while making sure that there is still an appropriate supply of oil in the world markets.”

Is there more oil being sourced from elsewhere; according to Axios news report, they quoted sources saying that President Biden's advisors are weighing a possible visit to Saudi Arabia to try and sort of push the kingdom to pump more oil into the markets. They're also talking to Venezuela which is a big sanction country, but large producer of oil.

Watch the accompanying video of CNBC-TV18’s Prashant Nair for more details.

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First Published:Mar 7, 2022 8:51 AM IST