Important information

This website is for Institutional Investors in France only.

If you are an Individual Investor click here, if you are an Financial Intermediary click here. Should you be looking for information for another location, please click here.

By clicking, you acknowledge that you have fully understood and accepted the Legal and Regulatory Information.

Capital IdeasTM

Investment insights from Capital Group

Categories
Market Volatility
Energy price stabilization largely depends on sanctions
Przemek Nowak
Equity investment analyst

Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, which has become Europe’s largest ground war in generations, has impacted millions of people and triggered a large-scale humanitarian crisis as vulnerable Ukrainians take shelter or flee their homes. The intensification and spread of the conflict is deeply troubling and is having a devastating impact on those people caught in the crisis.


This article focuses on potential market and economic implications of the conflict.


The current conflict has been pushing up global energy prices, but I would not go as far as arguing that they can now only keep going higher. Having said this, where we go on energy prices depends on the extent of U.S. and European sanctions against Russia. Importantly for the global energy complex, Russian oil and gas have been excluded from the sanctions for now. If this holds, it means we should expect some stabilization in oil and gas prices, although at higher levels.


Clearly, this is a very dynamic situation, and I would look for the following signposts as far as energy prices are concerned: One, further sanctions from the U.S. and Europe on Russian exports would imply higher prices in the short and medium term; and two, if we see Russia attain its strategic goals in the Ukraine, however those goals are defined, the sooner oil prices could decline to a more reasonable range of around $80–$90 per barrel. This assumes some “permanent” political risk premium.



Przemek Nowak is an equity investment analyst at Capital Group with research responsibility for energy and telecommunications in emerging markets, Latin America and EMEA, as well as emerging markets EMEA as a generalist and energy in Europe. He has 11 years of investment industry experience and has been with Capital Group for eight years. Earlier in his career he covered oil and gas in emerging markets.  Prior to joining Capital, Przemek worked as a research analyst at Nomura. Before that, he was a research analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland. He holds a master's degree in finance and accounting from the Warsaw School of Economics. He also holds the Certified Financial Analyst® designation. Przemek is based in London.


Past results are not predictive of results in future periods. It is not possible to invest directly in an index, which is unmanaged. The value of investments and income from them can go down as well as up and you may lose some or all of your initial investment. This information is not intended to provide investment, tax or other advice, or to be a solicitation to buy or sell any securities.

Statements attributed to an individual represent the opinions of that individual as of the date published and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Capital Group or its affiliates. All information is as at the date indicated unless otherwise stated. Some information may have been obtained from third parties, and as such the reliability of that information is not guaranteed.

Capital Group manages equity assets through three investment groups. These groups make investment and proxy voting decisions independently. Fixed income investment professionals provide fixed income research and investment management across the Capital organization; however, for securities with equity characteristics, they act solely on behalf of one of the three equity investment groups.