Oil prices rise to $56

Oil prices reversed course and turned sharply higher in mid-morning trade yesterday.

Brent crude rose $2.60, or 4.8 per cent, to $56.40 a barrel after trading as low as $52.51 earlier. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.22, or 4.9 per cent, to $47.63. This came after earlier falling more than $1 a barrel as the world’s top producers pump at record highs and signs of economic slowdown unnerve the market.

Traders pointed to signs that Saudi Arabia is beginning to make good on vows to cut output. Saudi exports in December fell by about half a million barrels per day to stand at 7.253 million bpd, according to tanker-tracking data from Bloomberg.

Source: The Nation