The crisis in Ukraine will have you paying more for fuel after oil prices climbed to a new, all-time high

Oil prices are climbing on fears that the Ukraine-Russia crisis will disrupt supplies across the world.

The price of Brent crude reached a seven-year high of $97.65 USD a barrel on Tuesday following an announcement by Russian President Putin ordering troops into two rebel-held regions in Ukraine’s east after it recognised them as independent states.

The UK and several western allies have threatened sanctions on Russia.

Russia is the second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia

The Kremlin has stated that its troops will engage in “peacekeeping” in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics – but those comments have been met with questions by the west, with the US calling such peacekeeper comments “nonsense”.

The White House says that Russia is creating a pretext for war.

Russia is also the world’s top producer of natural gas

A report by the BBC stated that sanctions forcing Russia to supply less crude or natural gas would have “important impact on the global economy.”