Crude oil futures traded higher on Monday morning, with Brent crude futures crossing $81 a barrel, following the decision of the US government to impose additional sanctions on Russia’s oil sector.

At 9.55 am on Monday, March Brent oil futures were at $81.04, up by 1.60 per cent, and March crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $76.91, up by 1.53 per cent.

January crude oil futures were trading at ₹6,731 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹6,576, up by 2.36 per cent, and February futures were trading at ₹6653 against the previous close of ₹6,516, up by 2.10 per cent.

On Friday, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on oil explorers and producers such as Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil, and the networks that trade the petroleum.

Quoting analysts, a Reuters report said that the latest batch of sanctions covered ships linked to 1.5 million barrels per day of seaborne Russian crude oil activity on average in 2024. This consisted of 7.5 lakh barrels per day of exports to China and 3.5 lakh barrels per day to India.

According to market reports, many the sanctioned tankers have been used to ship oil to India and China.

The latest US sanctions will force the major consumers such as China and India to buy crude from sources in West Asia, Africa and the US. Some reports noted that some independent refiners in China will be forced to reduce their refining output as they source a majority of their crude requirements from Russia.

Crude oil price was further supported by the US job data for December. The US job data showed a gain of 2.56 lakh jobs in December against the market forecast of 1.6 lakh jobs.

January natural gas futures were trading at ₹366.50 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹342.70, up by 6.94 per cent.

On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), January guargum contracts were trading at ₹10,477 in the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹10,377, up by 0.96 per cent.

April turmeric (farmer polished) futures were trading at ₹15,270 on NCDEX in the initial hour of trading on Monday against the previous close of ₹15,172, up by 0.65 per cent.