Oil and natural gas rose amid investor concern that escalating geopolitical tension over Ukraine could curb energy supplies. Brent crude advanced as much as 2 percent to $111.24 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London today. Gas futures jumped as much as 2.8 percent to $4.736 per million British thermal units in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange , after sliding 25 percent last week. “The market will be incredibly nervous, and that caution should push prices higher,” Ole Hansen, a Copenhagen-based strategist at Saxo Bank A/S, said yesterday by phone before the resumption of trading today. The standoff over Ukraine, the main conduit for Russian gas to consumers in Europe, intensified over the weekend as the former Soviet state put its forces on combat readiness and Russia ’s President Vladimir Putin threatened to invade. Wholesale gas costs jumped in […]