|
Brent crude was up 36 cents, or 0.4%, to $91.01 a barrel by 1031
GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $86.79 a barrel,
up 20 cents, or 0.2%.
On Thursday both benchmarks settled at their highest level since
October.
Brent and WTI are set to notch a more than 4% gain this week,
climbing for a second straight week, after third-largest OPEC
producer Iran vowed revenge against Israel for an attack that
killed high-ranking Iranian military personnel.
"The market knows that some kind of retaliation from Iran is
likely, but it doesn't know any details which creates a great
discomfort and nervousness," SEB analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack on Iran's
embassy compound in Syria on Monday.
Ongoing Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries in Russia may have
disrupted more than 15% of Russian capacity, a NATO official
said on Thursday, hitting the country's fuel output.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and
allies led by Russia, known as OPEC+, this week kept their oil
supply policy unchanged and pressed some countries to increase
compliance with output cuts.
"Further clampdowns on adherence to quotas should see output
fall further in Q2," ANZ analysts Daniel Hynes and Soni Kumari
wrote in a note.
"The prospect of a tighter market should see a drawdown in
inventories during the second quarter."
Heavy oil supply has also tightened globally after Mexico and
the United Arab Emirates cut exports of these grades.
This comes amid solid global oil demand growth of 1.4 million
barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter, JPMorgan analysts
wrote in a note.
"Our high-frequency demand indicators estimate that total oil
consumption in March averaged 101.2 million bpd, 100,000 bpd
above our published estimates," they said.
Investors are awaiting a U.S. March employment report on Friday
for further clues on the health of the U.S. economy and the
direction of its monetary policy.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore; editing by
Jason Neely)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
