London — Oil prices edged higher on Thursday despite swelling US crude inventories and record weekly US production, as focus shifted back to oil cartel Opec supply cuts and the potential of new US sanctions against Iran. Brent crude oil futures were at $73.56 a barrel at 9.47am GMT, up 20c from their last close. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were 25c higher at $68.18 a barrel. Prices were pulled down in earlier trading by a Wednesday report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing a 6.2-million-barrel jump in US crude inventories. However, by European trading hours, the focus shifted to bullish factors, such as an increase in Saudi Arabia’s official selling price of its oil to Asia, according to Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch. "It may signal stronger-than-expected demand in Asia," Fritsch said. "This, combined with constraints in [Opec] production, could lead to higher prices." On Wednesday, state-owned producer Saudi Aramco raised the June p...
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