Oil extends gain with US crisis slamming nation’s crude output
Oil extended its rally toward $62 a barrel as a worsening US energy crisis took out almost 40% of the nation’s crude production.
Futures in New York climbed as much as 1% after closing at a 13-month high on Wednesday. More than 4 million barrels a day of output is now offline, according to traders and executives, amid an unprecedented cold snap that’s frozen well operations and led to widespread power cuts. However, a spate of refinery outages has curbed demand for crude in the US, while gasoline consumption is also down as the cold keeps more Americans off the road.
The supply shock is aiding an already frothy global oil market and is starting to impact global energy flows, with traders snapping up ocean-going tankers to haul millions of barrels of European diesel to the US Adding to the bullishness, the American Petroleum Institute reported an almost 6 million-barrel drop in US crude stockpiles before official data due later on Thursday.
