Oil holds over $70

Oil prices nudged higher on Thursday after slumping 2 percent on data showing a surge in US crude stocks, with dealers refocusing on a general strike in Nigeria and unusually low US refinery operations. London benchmark Brent crude rose 27 cents to $70.69 a barrel, regaining its poise after a $1.42 plunge a day ago.
Prices had touched a 10-month high of $72.25 on Monday. US light, sweet crude inched 5 cents higher to $68.91 a barrel, after narrowing its unusually large discount versus Brent to under $2 amid ebbing inventories in the Cussing, Oklahoma, delivery point for the contract.
Prices initially slumped on Wednesday after data showed an unexpected 6.9 million-barrel jump in crude inventories to their highest since May 1998, but later pared those losses as dealers discounted the build and fretted over fuel supplies.
Although gasoline stocks rose a higher-than-expected 1.8 million barrels, refinery utilisation rates shocked traders by falling further, with plants using just 87.6 percent of capacity at a time they normally run nearer 95 percent.
"Aside from an unusual run of bad luck, the refining industry has been facing growing challenges in the past two years," wrote First Energy Capital analyst Martin King in a report.
"Although imports can fill some of the gap, they can't do everything." While profit margins are strong, refiners have struggled to keep up with unrelenting demand growth due to unexpected outages and tighter fuel specifications, analysts say.
Some analysts said the large crude inventory build was a statistical anomaly, the result of moving millions of barrels of crude oil stored offshore into onshore tanks.
Dealers were also keeping an anxious eye on the second day of a general strike in Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, where unions warned that exports could be hit as they withdraw key regulatory workers from terminals. Unions spared oil production and exports on the first day of the strike, which brought much of Nigeria to a standstill.