Futures in New York surpassed US$87 a barrel earlier in the session after an explosion on Tuesday knocked out a key crude pipeline running from Iraq to Turkey. The disruption was short-lived however, with prices trading about 50 US cents below their session high by mid-morning London time.
Oil climbed to the highest since October 2014 as the International Energy Agency said the market looked tighter than previously thought, with demand proving resilient to omicron.
The global supply surplus is shrinking and oil demand is on track to hit pre-pandemic levels, according to a report from the IEA. The agency also said there’s a growing gap between changes in global stockpiles and supply-demand balances. That’s a further indication that production could be lower, or consumption could be higher, than the market estimates, it said.
