Oil futures rose on Wednesday to erase some of their loss from a day earlier, as uncertainty surrounding the Russia-Ukraine crisis continued. “The situation regarding Ukraine hasn’t calmed down completely,” with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken claiming that there are no signs that Russia is withdrawing, said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at ThinkMarkets. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery CLH22, +1.21% rose $1.59, or 1.7%, to settle at $93.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after losing nearly 3.6% on Tuesday. Natural-gas futures, meanwhile, saw their March contract NGH22, +9.10% climb 41 cents, or 9.5%, to settle at $4.717 per million British thermal units – the highest front-month contract finish in almost three weeks. “The weather forecast is colder than anticipated and because of the snow and cold that we had last week, there is a lot of talk that production of natural gas is going be lower,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group. There’s also “spillover support” from Russia-Ukraine tensions, which supports the possibility of stronger U.S. exports, he said.
