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Brent crude oil jumps after pipeline outage

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SINGAPORE: Brent oil prices jumped by 1 per cent on Tuesday to their highest since mid-2015, after the shutdown of the Forties North Sea pipeline knocked out significant supply from a market already tightening due to Opec -led production cuts.


Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $65.32 a barrel at 0748 GMT, up 63 cents, or 1 per cent, from their last close.


The contract hit a high of $65.70 a barrel earlier in the day.


That marks the first time Brent has risen above $65 since June, 2015.


US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $58.38 a barrel, up 39 cents, or 0.7 per cent, from their last settlement.


“Brent crude raced higher as news broke that the North Sea’s Forties Pipeline system would have to be shut down for a ‘number of weeks’ after a hairline crack was found in it,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore. “The pipeline is a significant component underpinning the Brent benchmark.”


Britain’s Forties oil pipeline, the country’s largest at a capacity of 450,000 barrels per day (bpd), shut down on Monday after cracks were revealed.


“The market reaction shows that in a tight market, any supply issue will quickly be reflected in higher prices,” said ANZ bank.


Analysts said there was also oil price support from the consumer side.


“Demand growth across the commodity complex is extremely robust. And inventories across the complex have been declining sharply,” US bank Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients.


The jump in Brent prices widened its premium to WTI prices to as much as over $7 a barrel, the highest premium since May 2015 and up from around $5 last week, making US oil exports more attractive.— Reuters


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