The impact of Russia–Ukraine war on crude oil prices: an EMC framework

As the second-largest oil producer and natural gas exporter, Russia’s war with Ukraine has severely impacted the energy market. To what extent has the war influenced crude oil prices, and has it altered the long-term dynamics of oil prices? An objective analysis of the effects of the Russia–Ukraine war on the crude oil market can assist relevant entities in developing both short-term emergency strategies and long-term response plans. This study establishes an analytical framework of the event analysis method based on multiresolution causality testing (EMC). The results of the multiresolution causality testing reveal a significant one-way causality between the Russia–Ukraine war and crude oil prices. Afterward, using the event analysis based on variational mode decomposition (VMD), from October 1, 2021, to August 25, 2022, as the event window, we found that the war and its chain events caused the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices to increase by $37.14, a 52.33% surge, and the Brent crude oil price to rise by $41.49, a 56.33% increase. During the event window, the Russia–Ukraine war can account for 70.72% and 73.62% of the fluctuation in WTI and Brent crude oil prices, respectively. Furthermore, the war amplified oil price volatility and fundamentally altered the trend of crude oil prices. Consequently, this study proposes four recommendations: the establishment of an emergency management mechanism for the oil market, the diversification of oil and gas imports by energy-importing countries, the steady advancement of energy transformation, and the judicious use of financial instruments by enterprises to hedge risks.