Oil prices rise due to concerns about a tightening supply

Oil prices rose in the early hours of Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session, as investors fretted over a limited supply ahead of the winter heating season in the Northern Hemisphere.

Brent crude rose 5 cents to $94.05 per barrel at 00:06 GMT, while WTI crude rose 7 cents to $87.85 per barrel.

This year, crude oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic have climbed by more than 15 percent due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Energy costs have soared as a result of Moscow's reduction of gas supply to Europe in reaction to Western sanctions imposed for its invasion of its neighbor.

As the cost of the West's "energy war" with Russia continues to climb, a European Union draft proposal implies that fossil fuel companies may be obliged to share their excess profits with European consumers and businesses.

In the week ending September 9, emergency oil stocks in the United States fell 8.4 million barrels to 434.1 million barrels, the lowest level since October 1984, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Energy on Monday (DOE).

In March, U.S. President Joe Biden devised a plan to release 1 million barrels per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) over the course of six months to counteract rising U.S. fuel prices, which have contributed to soaring inflation.

This past week, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Reuters that the Biden administration is assessing the need for more SPR releases when the current program expires in October.

In the interim, the G7 nations will impose a ceiling on the price of Russian oil to reduce the country's oil export income in an effort to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, while ensuring that developing nations continue to have access to oil.

However, the U.S. Treasury cautioned that the cap could force oil and gasoline prices in the United States to increase even further this winter.