Summary More than 70 percent of Russia's oil and gas exports to Europe pass through Ukraine.
SINGAPORE (AFP) - Oil prices eased in Asian trade Wednesday as investors locked in profits after recent sharp gains while keeping a close eye on international tensions over Russia s absorption of Ukraine s Crimea region.
New York s main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for April delivery, was down 25 cents to $99.45 in afternoon trade, and Brent North Sea crude dropped two cents to $106.77 for its May contract.
WTI had jumped $1.62, or 1.7 percent, in US closing trade Tuesday on news of a pipeline expansion that will help to draw down bulging crude supplies at the country s Cushing depot in Oklahoma.
Desmond Chua, market strategist at CMC Markets in Singapore, said "we are still due for more rising tensions in terms of follow-up actions from Russia" in its showdown with the West over Crimea.
More than 70 percent of Russia s oil and gas exports to Europe pass through Ukraine, and there are concerns that Western sanctions on Moscow could lead to a disruption of supplies.
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a treaty claiming Crimea as Russian territory, as Ukraine warned the showdown had entered a "military stage" after soldiers were killed on both sides.
The treaty signing was conducted at lightning speed in the Kremlin in a defiant expansion of Russia s post-Soviet borders that has plunged relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.
The move, less than three weeks after pro-Moscow troops first seized control of the peninsula, triggered furious condemnation from Western leaders.
Investors are also watching the outcome of the US Federal Reserve s two-day policy meeting that ends later Wednesday.
The US central bank is expected further to cut its massive stimulus program amid a slowly recovering economy in the world s largest crude-oil consuming nation.
