Oil rises on stronger demand, supply restrictions

Friday, 15 September 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

London (Reuters): Oil prices rose on Thursday, building on recent gains after forecasts for stronger oil demand by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Brent crude LCOc1 was up 40 cents at $ 55.56 a barrel by 1100 GMT, having risen by 89 cents, or 1.6%, on Wednesday. US light crude CLc1 was up 40 cents at $ 49.70 after a 2.2% gain in the previous session.

Brent has now climbed by more than $ 10 a barrel over the past three months and is close to where it was at the beginning of the year, trading between about $ 55 and $ 57.

Wednesday’s gains followed an IEA report that raised its estimate of 2017 world oil demand growth to 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) from 1.5 million bpd.

The IEA said that a global oil surplus was shrinking thanks to strong European and US demand as well as production declines in OPEC and non-OPEC countries.