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Brent crude futures rose $1.11 on the day to $45.73 a barrel by
1105 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures
gained $1.36 to $45.14.
"The difference today compared with a year ago is the market is
starting to price in supply disruptions, whereas in a market
that is totally oversupplied, you don't care about losing half a
million barrels a day (in production)," Petromatrix strategist
Olivier Jakob said.
"The market is becoming much more sensitive to supply
disruptions."
The wildfire has forced the evacuation of all 88,000 people in
the western Canadian oil city of Fort McMurray and burned down
1,600 structures, and has the potential to destroy much of the
town, authorities said.
With evacuees being told to head north towards Alberta's oil
sand fields, and some pipelines in the region being shut as a
precaution, output at several facilities has been disrupted. The
volume of the decline was unclear.
The premium of July Brent futures over July WTI neared its
narrowest in six weeks, while the premium of front-month June
WTI futures over the July contract fell to its smallest in seven
months, driven by the potential for reduced shipments of
Canadian crude to U.S. refiners.
"Events in Canada are yet another example of what has turned out
to be a key feature this year, which is a sequence of unexpected
supply disruptions supporting prices," wrote PVM Oil Associates
analyst David Hufton.
Investment firm ETF Securities said unplanned outages within the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, including
Libya, stood above 2 million barrels per day (bpd), the highest
in at least five years.
"Investor optimism for oil has markedly improved. We believe the
gains in price are sustainable and not just driven by
speculative gains. We are likely to be in a global oil supply
deficit by Q3 2016," said Nitesh Shah, director of commodity
strategy at ETF Securities.
Libya's already crippled oil production is at risk of further
disruption from a stand-off between eastern and western
political factions, which prevented a Glencore cargo from
loading.
U.S. production continues to fall, with the latest official
figures showing a decline by over 8 percent since mid-2015 to
8.825 million bpd.
(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing
by Dale Hudson)
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