Oil spikes as Trump targets two Russia giants

Crude prices spiked more than 2 percent Thursday after US President Donald Trump said he would impose heavy sanctions on two Russian oil companies.

Both main oil contracts jumped more than 3 percent - having climbed more than 2 percent Wednesday - on news of the measures after Trump said Ukraine peace efforts with Russian President Vladimir Putin "don't go anywhere".

The move was joined by another round of punishments by the European Union as part of attempts to pressure Moscow to end its three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine.

Trump decided on the sanctions after plans for a fresh summit with Putin in Budapest collapsed this week.

"Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don't go anywhere," the US president said in response to a question from an AFP journalist in the Oval Office.

But he hoped the "tremendous sanctions" on oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil would be short-lived, and that "the war will be settled".

Brent and WTI were both sitting at near two-week highs after the spikes, helped by Trump's claims that India agreed to cut its purchases of the commodity from Russia as part of a US trade deal.

New Delhi has neither confirmed nor denied any policy shift.

Bloomberg on Thursday cited unnamed Indian refinery sources as saying that flows from Russian crude were expected to plunge almost to zero as a result of the US sanctions.

AFP