Shafaq News/Oil prices rose marginally on Thursday as geopolitical concerns over escalatingtensions between Russia and Ukraine countered the impact from abigger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories.
Brent crudefutures rose 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $72.97 as of 0408 GMT. U.S. West TexasIntermediate crude futures rose 16 cents, or 0.23%, to $68.91.
Ukrainefired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia onWednesday, the latest new Western weapon it has been permitted to use onRussian targets a day after it fired U.S. ATACMS missiles.
Moscow hassaid the use of Western weapons to strike Russian territory far from the borderwould be a major escalation in the conflict. Kyiv says it needs the capabilityto defend itself by hitting Russian rear bases used to support Moscow'sinvasion, which entered its 1,000th day this week.
"Foroil, the risk is if Ukraine targets Russian energy infrastructure, while theother risk is uncertainty over how Russia responds to these attacks," saidING analysts in a note.
JPMorgananalysts said oil consumption recovered in the past week thanks to bettertravel demand in the U.S. and India, and as the latter also showed asignificant rise in industrial demand.
Global oildemand is estimated to reach 103.6 million barrels per day (bpd) during thefirst 19 days of November, up 1.7 million bpd on-year, the analysts said in anote.
Butcountering the gains was a rise in U.S. crude inventories by 545,000 barrels to430.3 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 15, exceeding analysts'expectations in a Reuters poll for a 138,000-barrel rise.
Gasolineinventories last week rose more than forecast, while distillate stockpilesposted a larger-than-expected draw, according to the Energy InformationAdministration data.
Adding tosupply, Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL), opens new tab said it had restored fulloutput capacity at the Johan Sverdrup oilfield in the North Sea following apower outage.
Meanwhile,the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led byRussia, the group known as OPEC+, may push back output increases again when itmeets on Dec. 1 due to weak global oil demand, according to three OPEC+ sourcesfamiliar with the discussions.
OPEC+, whichpumps around half the world's oil, had initially planned to gradually reverseproduction cuts with minor increases spread over several months in 2024 and2025.
However, theInternational Energy Agency (IEA) said in its report last week even if OPEC+cuts remain in place, oil supply will exceed demand in 2025 as risingproduction from the United States and other outside producers outpaces sluggishdemand.
(Reuters)