By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com: There are few better times to invest in oil trading than this.

Brent reached a $90-a barrel peak, bringing the weekly record for crude prices. This latest rally was fueled by the Russian-Ukraine conflict and the upcoming meeting OPEC+ of oil producers, which always provides its own drama to maintain crude oil prices at their peak.

“Bottom line is that everything that I look at tells me oil can go a lot higher,” said Scott Shelton, crude futures broker at ICAP (LON:) in Durham, North Carolina. “Refiners  can reach for barrels here at this price … margins will justify it.” He added though that he thought “a smaller flat price is better suited for this story”, suggesting an overrun in prices. 

After hitting a record $89.25 per barrel, it dropped to 69c or 0.7% at $90.03. For the week, it rose 2.4%, while the cumulative gain  for the six weeks was 22%. Brent rose by around 14% for the entire year.

The benchmark price for U.S. crude settled at $86.82, up 21c, or 0.2%. WTI rose 2% for the week. The total increase over the past six weeks was 23%. It has increased by around 15% since 2020.

Russia-Ukraine tensions reached a new high after Moscow’s military buildup near Ukraine has expanded to include supplies of blood along with other medical materials that would allow it to treat casualties. It was  another indicator yet of the Kremlin’s military readiness in the conflict, three U.S. officials tell Reuters.

OPEC+ was preparing for its February 2nd monthly meeting. Each session of the international oil alliance has provided an opportunity to its members to raise oil prices. The energy market has become saturated by reports that the oil exporters to the alliance are unable to increase production because of capacity limitations from oil fields under-invested.