Affected by the failure of the organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non OPEC oil producing countries to increase production, market concerns that Russian oil and gas trade may be subject to sanctions and the decline of US commercial crude oil inventories, international crude oil futures prices continued to rise sharply on the 2nd, closing above US $110 a barrel. As of the close of the day, light crude oil futures for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $7.19 to close at $110.60 a barrel, or 6.95%. London Brent crude oil futures for delivery in May rose $7.96, or 7.58%, to close at $112.93 a barrel. OPEC and non OPEC oil producing countries held their 26th ministerial meeting on April 2 and decided to maintain the original production increase plan in April this year. According to the statement issued by OPEC, the participating oil producing countries reaffirmed the production adjustment plan and monthly production adjustment mechanism approved by the 19th ministerial meeting, and decided to increase the total monthly production in April by 400000 barrels per day according to the original schedule. The statement said that the participating oil producing countries believe that the current fluctuations in the crude oil market stem from changes in the geopolitical situation rather than changes in market fundamentals; The current fundamentals of the crude oil market and the consensus on the future trend are the balance between market supply and demand. Recently, affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia, international oil prices have increased significantly. Before the meeting, some market participants expected major oil producing countries to further increase production in order to curb the rapid rise of oil prices. Phil Flynn, senior market analyst of us price futures group, said that members of the International Energy Agency decided to jointly release 60 million barrels of crude oil reserves on the 1st, which was less than the market expected. Under the condition that OPEC does not change the current output adjustment policy, the market impact of releasing crude oil reserves is very small. The data released by the US energy information administration on the 2nd also supported oil prices. Data show that last week, the U.S. commercial crude oil inventory was about 413 million barrels, down 2.6 million barrels month on month. In addition, market concerns about possible sanctions on Russia's oil and gas trade also pushed oil prices higher. Paul hosner, head of commodity research at Standard Chartered Bank, said that if the situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate, it is difficult to see that Europe and the United States will continue to import oil from Russia indefinitely. Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at anda, an online foreign exchange trading platform, said that the escalation of the situation in Ukraine is likely to exacerbate the tension in crude oil supply and lead to a further rise in oil prices. If the market expects the United States and Europe to impose sanctions on Russia's energy sector, the price of Brent crude oil futures may rise to $120 a barrel. Amrita Sen, co-founder of energy vision consulting, said that a considerable part of Russia's crude oil trade was at a standstill in the face of sanctions, soaring freight rates and greater political risks. (Xinhua News Agency)