Oil prices rallied to a three-year high, boosted by a record 10th straight weekly decline in U.S. crude inventories. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures climbed to 66.22 dollars per barrel in early trading, also the highest level since early December 2014. U.S. crude inventories C-STK-T-EIA fell 1.1 million barrels in the week to Jan. 19, to 411.58 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. Analysts said that rising oil prices would likely start to have an inflationary effect. Looming over the generally bullish oil market has been U.S. oil production, which is edging ever more closely towards 10 million barrels per day (bpd), hitting 9.88 million bpd last week.

Source: Punch January 25, 2018 09:11 UTC