Oil prices rose by 2% early on Monday in thinner-than-usual trading after the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents said progress had been made on a peace agreement, but issues still remain to be discussed.
As of 7:43 a.m. ET on Monday, the U.S. benchmark crude price, WTI Crude, was up by 2.43% on the day and traded at $58.12.
The international benchmark, Brent Crude, moved to $62 per barrel, up by 2.24% from Friday’s close.
U.S. President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago to discuss a revised draft of a peace agreement to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which has been dragging on for nearly four years.
Zelenskyy said progress has been made at the talks on Sunday, and noted “we much appreciate the progress achieved by American and Ukrainian teams in recent weeks.”
Ukraine and the U.S. “agreed that security guarantees are key on the path to achieving a lasting peace, and our teams will continue working on all aspects,” the Ukrainian president said.
The parties also agreed that their teams would meet as early as next week to finalize all discussed matters, and that President Trump would host Ukrainian and European leaders in Washington, D.C., in January.
However, some of the thorniest issues remain unresolved, including the fate of the Donbas region, which Russia wants to fully control.
Following the meeting, President Trump said that a deal on Donbas remained “unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer.”
An overall agreement on a peace path at this point is “close to 95%” done, also according to President Trump.
Apart from a lack of a meaningful breakthrough in the Ukraine talks, oil prices moved higher early on Monday due to the renewed tensions in the Middle East, rekindling concerns of supply disruptions from key exporters. Saudi Arabia carried out airstrikes in Yemen, while Iran declared a “full-scale war” against the United States, Israel, and Europe.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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