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Oil prices rise above $50 a barrel on supply concerns
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'Oil markets were still oversupplied despite rising demand and supply disruptions caused by violence in Nigeria and Libya as well as wild forest fires in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province.'
Crude oil prices rose above $50 per barrel on Thursday as supply disruptions and lower-than-expected US crude stocks suggested to traders that the global glut was receding.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 1.39 percent to $50.43 per barrel on London’s Intercontinental Exchange as at 12.06pm GMT. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, rose 1.17 percent to $50.14 per barrel. The last time oil prices were above $50 per barrel was in November 2015.
On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration had reported that U.S. crude stockpiles fell 4.2 million barrels last week, but analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected a decrease of 2.5 million barrels.
That news, in addition to reports of incessant attacks by militants on Nigeria’s oil facilities, may have propelled oil prices above the psychological barrier of $50 per barrel, analysts have said.
“Certainly [$50] is a psychological barrier. There is a momentum, people will try and push it up over that,” Ric Spooner, Chief Market Analyst at Sydney’s CMC Markets, told Reuters.
Spooner, however, said that oil markets were still oversupplied despite rising demand and supply disruptions caused by violence in Nigeria and Libya as well as wild forest fires in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province.
“From a practical point of view will there or will there not be a sustainable increase above $50? At the $50-$55 range there has got to be a good chance of seeing the peak,” Spooner said.
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