Ukraine crisis: Energy stocks in focus as prices fluctuate

Oil prices fluctuated on Tuesday as the Ukraine peace talks made little headway and the expected ban on oil imports from Russia raised investors’ concerns over inflation and slowing economic growth.

The US administration is ready to move ahead with a ban on Russian oil imports even if European allies do not, according to a Reuters report.

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Brent crude, an international oil benchmark, which briefly traded over $139 per barrel in the previous session, in morning trade was up about 0.8% at $124.20.

At 11 am, BSE Oil & Gas dropped 1.54% to trade at 17,581.73. Nifty Oil & Gas was down 1%, pulled down by Adani Total Gas, which fell around 5%. ONGC plunged 3.72% while GAIL was down 2.26%.

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However, Indraprastha Gas Limited jumped around 10%. Mahanagar Gas was trading about 8% higher while Gujarat Gas jumped 6.50%. Petronet, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Indian Oil Corporation also gained close to 1% each.

Higher crude oil prices are benefitting upstream companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Petronet LNG and GAIL, said Harshvardhan Dole, Vice President-Institutional Equities, IIFL.

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“From a revenue model perspective, the upstream companies like ONGC, OIL and to an extent GAIL and Petronet LNG are clear beneficiaries of strong oil and gas prices,” he added.

He noted that Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has lost all the premiums it enjoyed in the past.

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Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, rejected western calls to ban Russian oil and gas imports imposed in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Such a move could put Europe’s energy security at risk and that energy imports from Russia were currently essential to citizens’ daily lives, he said in a statement.

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Sunil Singhania, founder of Abakkus Asset Management, said that oil has given a shock and it is now fundamentally getting weaker. Any news on Russia does impact oil prices.

Oil fundamentally is now going to weaken quite significantly, once this geopolitical event is behind us. Medium to long term, we will be more bearish on oil than we ever were,” he added.