Oil Closes Above $70 a Barrel for First Time in Over Two Years By Bloomberg – Investing.com

Oil Closes Above $70 a Barrel for First Time in Over Two Years By Bloomberg – Investing.com

(Bloomberg) -- Oil resumed its rally to top $70 a barrel in New York as investors grew more confident that accelerating vaccinations and easing travel restrictions will continue to boost demand.

West Texas Intermediate futures surpassed the $70 mark to close at its highest since Oct. 2018 after briefly touching the key psychological level earlier this week. U.S. oil supplies fell 2.11 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute was said to report. That would be the third straight weekly decline if confirmed by U.S. government data on Wednesday.

At the same time, confidence in the outlook for oil demand continues to grow as accelerating vaccinations allow people to travel more. The Middle Eastern Dubai benchmark is trading in its steepest backwardation -- a market structure that indicates supply tightness -- in almost a year after the region's physical market had a strong start to the month.