Just when it didn’t seem things couldn’t get worse — gasoline at $5 to $8 a gallon, supply shortages in everything from baby formula to new cars — comes the devastating news that many of us will endure electricity blackouts this summer.

U.S. Rig Count is up 7 from last week to 740, Canada Rig Count is up 15 from last week to 156.

Brent was up $1.13, or 0.9%, to $120.94 a barrel, WTI gained $1.03, or 0.9%, to $118.62.

The price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at $119.24 a barrel

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman met Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak on Thursday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a flagship conference that almost all Western officials and business executives are avoiding this year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the worst-case scenario where the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany is shut totally, Europe will fail to reach storage levels the European Union has ordered by the start of the heating season in November. And the region could run out of stocks completely by January.

Eni SpA will receive just half of its requested gas volumes from Russia’s Gazprom PJSC on Friday, compared with about two-thirds the previous day.

Asian buyers will also be competing directly with European LNG importers looking to meet an EU target of filling gas storage to 80% of capacity by Nov. 1.

The surge in electricity supply did little to ease rising prices that are being driven higher by climbing gas costs as Russia cuts some flows to Europe.

Brent were down 45 cents, or 0.4%, to $118.06 a barrel , WTI fell 44 cents to $114.87, also off 0.4%.

"We see that we have a fairly significant increase in June compared to May, up around 600,000 b/d," Novak said on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum,

Compared to pre-war levels in January and February, Russia's shipped crude exports from June 1-15 rose by 576,000 b/d to average about 3.88 million b/d,

European nations have for months feared Russian supply cuts in retaliation for sanctions aimed at Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 2.0 million barrels to 418.7 million barrels.

Brent were down $1.27, or 1%, at $119.90 a barrel, WTI fell $1.44, or 1.2%, to $117.49 a barrel.