Crude oil prices eased towards the end of Monday as Europe's leaders said it was unlikely there would be an immediate ban on Russian oil and gas exports.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said energy supplies from Russia were of “essential importance” to the European economy and that while finding an alternative to Russia was urgent arranging new sources of supply won’t happen overnight.
“It’s, therefore, a conscious decision on our part to continue the activities of business enterprises in the area of energy supply with Russia.”
UK prime minister Boris Johnson also said that Europe could not just shut down oil and gas supplies from Russia.
In a news conference, the British prime minister said: "There are different dependencies in different countries, and we have to be mindful of that, and you can't simply close down the use of oil and gas overnight even from Russia."
"We can go fast in the UK ... what we need to do is to make sure we are all moving the same direction ... and that we accelerate that move and I think that's what you are going to see."
Crude prices jumped to around US$140 barrel on Monday morning on weekend reports that the US was considering a ban on Russian supplies, though brokers pointed out that its dependency on oil and gas from the country is much lower than Europe.
The US only imports around 400,000 barrels a day from Russia compared to Europe's 4.3mln/d, according to Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS).
Even so, reports today suggested that the US has started talks with alternative suppliers, such as Venezuela and potentially even Iran, to fill any gap if supplies from Russia stop.
Brent crude was trading at around US$123.50 per barrel near the close of trading on Monday.