Recall that in 2020, when the global economy was affected by the epidemic and fell into a slump, international oil prices once fell to a "freezing point", becoming one of the commodities with the largest price decline in the world that year. At that time, the mainland also took the opportunity to buy a large amount of low-priced crude oil. But then, with the advancement of the global economic recovery process, from the second half of 2021, international oil prices have entered a rapid rise.
After the time enters 2022, the rise in international oil prices continues. At the end of last year, there were forecasts that oil prices may break through the $100/barrel mark this year, which many people still thought was unrealistic, but now this situation is about to be realized. With rising international oil prices, it is now only "one step away" from the $100 mark.
According to recent relevant data, as of February 16, the price of Brent crude oil and US crude oil is hovering at the $95 / barrel level. And according to the current trend of international oil prices, the possibility of subsequent price increases is still large, and it is basically inevitable to break through the $100 mark.
The rise in international oil prices has not stopped, and in this situation, it can be said that there are "several joys and some sorrows". The joy is naturally those oil producing countries, you know, like Saudi Arabia, Latin America and other crude oil giants, the cost of each barrel of oil is only about 40-60 US dollars. Under the high oil price, the profits of these oil-producing countries and crude oil production enterprises continue to reach new highs, which can be said to be "lying down and making money".
Seeing that the rise in international oil prices could not be stopped, a number of countries represented by the United States began to "sit still". Since last year, the United States has repeatedly called on OPEC+, an oil-producing organization, hoping that it can expand the increase in crude oil production to curb the rise in international oil prices.
Helplessly, the organization of oil-producing countries can be described as "oil and salt do not enter". At the beginning of this month, OPEC+ just said that it will continue to maintain the 400,000 barrels per day crude oil production increase plan and will not be expanded by the rise in oil prices. Seeing that this method does not work, the United States has also pulled Japan, South Korea, India and other countries to release crude oil reserves. But from the current situation, this does not seem to have a deterrent effect on the rise in national oil prices.
It should be noted that the rise in oil prices will also greatly exacerbate global inflation. So in addition to the United States, Japan seems to be in a hurry now.
According to a February 16 report, Japan announced that it would sell up to 1.64 million barrels of crude oil reserves at auction from February 16 to March 9, while the shipments of crude oil were delivered on April 20. Recently, it sold crude oil reserves with the United States, and now in just over two months, Japan has shot again, which shows that it is also very anxious about the rising international oil prices.
In fact, it is not difficult to understand that in addition to worrying about the intensification of inflation, the sharp rise in international oil prices has also led to a significant increase in gasoline prices in Japan. It is reported that the current price of gasoline per liter in Japan has increased by as much as 170 yen.
At the end of January, Japan also introduced a subsidy policy for domestic refiners, which amounted to 500,000 yen per liter.
As international oil prices get closer and closer to the $100 mark, Japan is naturally more and more anxious, and Japan's decision to make another dump of crude oil reserves can also be said to be helpless. However, from the experience of the last time, even if Japan's release of crude oil reserves can play a role in curbing oil prices, it is destined to be only temporary, and this practice will not have much impact on the overall trend of international oil prices.
It is worth mentioning that on February 15, Japan released the GDP data for 2021, and Japan achieved a total GDP of 5.1 trillion US dollars last year, an increase of 1.7% year-on-year. Although there has been some progress, it has not yet come out of the "5 trillion dilemma". If international oil prices cannot cool down, it will obviously be detrimental to Japan's subsequent economic development, which may also be the reason why it will be anxious.
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