World oil prices rebounded Tuesday, lifted by equities rallies and bargain hunting after crude oil hit multi-week lows the previous day.
New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for April delivery, settled at $90.82 a barrel, up 70 cents from Monday’s closing level.
In London trade, Brent North Sea crude for April surged $1.52 higher to close at $111.61.
On Monday WTI dropped below $90 for the first time in two months and Brent fell to its lowest level since mid-January.
The New York benchmark futures contract has shed more than $7 since mid-February.
The market’s renewed buying appetite, according to Again Capital analyst John Kilduff, also was due to a Wall Street rally that pushed the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average to a new all-time record high as investors bet on the US economy’s continued recovery.
“You could see some spillover on the commodities market” as the US stocks surge sets “a positive outlook for the economy generally,” Kilduff said.
In addition, WTI got a boost from Brent’s sharp rise amid concerns about supply in the North Sea, he said.
An oil leak at the Alpha Cormorant platform in the North Sea forced operator Abu Dhabi National Energy Company to shut down and evacuate the platform Saturday as a precaution.
Cormorant Alpha provides about 90,000 barrels per day of crude oil to the North Sea pipeline system.
Source: AFP
