Crude oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid concerns about supply due to slowdown in production returns after last week's severe cold snap.
The cold weather in Texas and the Plans states reportedly forced the shutdown of approximately 4 million barrels per day of crude production along with 21 billion cubic feet of natural gas output.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures contracts for March expired at $61.49 a barrel today, gaining $2.25 or about 3.8% for the session.
April WTI futures ended up $2.44 or about 4.1% at $61.70 a barrel.
Brent crude futures were up $2.16 or nearly 3.5% at $64.30 a barrel a little while ago.
According to reports, it will take some time for U.S. crude output to return to normal levels due to the damage suffered by various infrastructure items in refinery facilities due to the extreme cold weather last week.
Meanwhile, analysts at Goldman Sachs have raised their Brent oil price forecast for the second quarter by $10 to $70 and to $75 in the following three months.
Goldman sees the rally accelerating as demand outpaces supply from OPEC+, shale and Iran. The investment banking giant sees oil as an inflation hedge and doesn't expect Iran's export to recover anytime soon.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company - www.instaforex.com
source http://www.mt5.com/forex_news/quickview/2172427/
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