Oil price, on Thursday, rose to $102 a barrel, for the first time since September 2014, with escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The global oil benchmark, Brent crude, rose over 5 percent to trade at $102.27 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate witnessed a corresponding increase of over 5 percent at $97.06 a barrel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had authorised a military operation in eastern Ukraine on Thursday in what could be the start of war in Europe over Russia’s demands for an end to NATO’s eastward expansion.
Russia is the world’s second-largest oil producer, which mainly sells crude to European refineries, and is the largest supplier of natural gas to Europe, providing about 35% of its supply.
Western nations and Japan on Tuesday punished Russia with new sanctions for ordering troops into separatist regions of eastern Ukraine and threatened to go further if Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its neighbour. So far, there are no sanctions on the energy trade yet.
Japan and Australia said on Thursday they were prepared to tap their oil reserves, together with other International Energy Agency (IEA) member countries, if global supplies were hit by hostilities in Ukraine.
