White House Considers Sending Biden To Saudi Arabia To Beg For More Oil

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that the House is considering ‘strong legislation’ to ban Russian oil and energy products. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky implored U.S. lawmakers to do so during a call on Saturday.

Countries from Japan to the United States discussed banning Russian oil imports in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, fueling an 18 percent jump in crude oil on top of a 21 percent surge last week.

U.S. stock index futures slid on Monday, as the prospect of a ban briefly pushed oil above $130 a barrel and added to concerns over spiraling inflation and slowing economic growth.  At 8.41am, the Dow was down 214 points, or 0.64 percent. The S&P 500 dropped 0.55 percent and the Nasdaq lost 0.61 percent.

West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude both breached $130 per barrel for the first time since 2008. For every $10 increase in oil, the price of gasoline increases about 20 cents per gallon.

The all-time high for oil was marked in July 2008, when the price per barrel of U.S. crude climbed to $145.29.

The average price of a gallon of gas is up to $4.07, up from $3.61 a week ago.

The U.S. imports about 700,000 barrels of crude oil and petroleum products per day from Russia,