Singapore — Oil prices edged up on Thursday, extending two days of increases as supply disruptions in Libya lifted the market, although bloated US crude inventories curbed gains. Prices for front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were at $52.53 a barrel at 4.45am GMT, up 11c from their last close. In the US, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 19c to $49.70 a barrel. The increases extended two days of gains which supported Brent well above $50 a barrel and lifted WTI within sight of that level. Traders said supply disruptions in Libya were lifting the market and that falling US petrol inventories pointed to a tightening market there despite record crude stocks. "Production issues ... deepened, with Libyan oil output falling to about 500,000 barrels a day due to the shutdown of pipelines from its biggest field," ANZ bank said on Thursday. And while a rise in US crude inventories weighed, ANZ said that "big falls in [petrol] inventories, comi...
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