Oil prices kept rising amid supply concerns
By Trend
Oil prices continued to rally on Thursday as Saudi Arabia suspended oil shipments through a key Red Sea strait, Xinhua reported.
Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that it was "temporarily halting" all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb after an attack on two big oil tankers by the Houthi movement, according to CNBC.
Analysts worried that the suspension may reduce global oil supplies as Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter.
Meanwhile, investor sentiment was still buoyed by last week's much-bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. crude stockpiles.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a weekly report on Wednesday that the country's crude stocks fell by 6.1 million barrels to 404.9 million barrels last week, marking the lowest level since February 2015.
The West Texas Intermediate for September delivery rose 0.31 U.S. dollar to settle at 69.61 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery added 0.61 dollar to 74.54 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
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