NEW YORK: Oil prices climbed about 2% on Wednesday on worries the conflict in the Middle East could disrupt oil supplies and ahead of an expected US Federal Reserve announcement that could provide clues about future interest rates.
Brent futures for January delivery rose $1.63, or 1.9% to $86.65 a barrel by 10:50 a.m. EDT (1450 GMT). But the January contract remained below where the December contract settled on Tuesday. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.64, or 2.0%, to $82.66 per barrel.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said energy firms added 0.7 million barrels of crude into stockpiles during the week ended Oct. 24, which was lower than the 1.3 million barrel build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and the 1.3 million barrel build the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group, reported a day earlier .
“Nothing that was really out of line with expectations,” Price Futures Group analyst Phil Flynn told Reuters. “It wasn’t really enough to move the needle here. Crude storage is not up as much as market was expecting.”
“The market will continue to be dominated by headlines out of the Middle East and fears that the conflict will spread resulting in a supply disruption that either keeps Iranian oil off the market or Iran takes steps to restrict flows through the Strait of Hormuz,” said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.
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