Oil Rallies as Investors Shrug Off Rise in U.S. Stockpiles
Oil prices rallied on Thursday as investors shrugged off a rise in U.S. crude stockpiles and focused on tightening supply in Canada and Libya.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 2.3% to $45.65 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading up 2.9% at $45.06 a barrel.
The rally was partly fueled by news of production outages in Canada, where raging forest fires in the oil-rich province of Alberta forced oil-sands companies to shut down or slow operations. Canada produces around 4.5 million barrels a day of oil, of which 2.3 million barrels a day comes from oil sands.