Russia-Ukraine crisis: Brent crude reaches 13-year high of $139, drops later, says report

Brent crude touched $139.13 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) hit $130.50 in early trade, both benchmarks striking their highest since July 2008 before paring the gains, the report said.

By 1437 GMT, Brent was up $3.54, or 3 percent, at $121.65 per barrel and WTI up $1.93, or 1.7 percent, at $117.61, it added.

Last Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States and European allies are exploring ways to ban Russian oil.

"We consider $125 per barrel, our near-term forecast for Brent crude oil, as a soft cap for prices, although prices could rise even higher should disruptions worsen or continue for a longer period," UBS commodity analyst Giovanni Staunovo was quoted as saying.

A prolonged war could see Brent moving above the $150 per barrel mark, he said.

Further, the prices could go as high as $200 as the shortfall is likely to be  5 million barrel per day (bpd) or more if the Russian oil export is cut off, according to the analysts at Bank of America, the Reuters report said.

JP Morgan analysts forecast that the oil could soar to $185 this year, and analysts at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) said oil may rise to $180 and cause a global recession, the report stated.

Russia is the world's biggest exporter of crude and oil products together, with exports around 7 million bpd, or 7 percent of global supply.

Accordng to the report, Kazakhastha's oil exports through Russian ports also faced problems.

Japan has said it would be difficult to immediately replace Russian oil supplies which ranks fift in the country's crude oil supplies.

The world is now looking at oil supplies from Iran but much of it depends on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The report said the talks to revive the nuclear deal faces uncertainty as Russia has said the sanctions it faces due its Ukraine invasion should not affect its trade with Iran. China has also raised some new demands.

Even if the nuclear deal is revived, it will take several months for Iran to restore oil supplies, according to experts.

in their first high-level bilateral talks in years, US officials have been in talks with Venezuela to lift sanctions on the country to ease oil supply but with little progress, the report added.