 Inventories may be rising but the oil price remains high |
Oil prices rose to more than $52 on Thursday, before closing 22 cents up at $51.39. Earlier they surged to $52.05, the highest price since 1 November. But better-than-expected figures for US oil inventories curbed the rise.
Thursday's figure narrowly beat Wednesday's price of $51.17 for a barrel of US light crude.
Severe weather leading to increased demand for heating oil contributed to Wednesday's rise in the oil price.
US inventories rose by 600,000 barrels, the US government said on Thursday. The news helped to knock the oil price off its intra-day high.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange prices had jumped to an intra-day high of $52.05, a rise of 88 cents. This is the closest oil prices have come in recent days to the $52.50 a barrel reached in November last year.
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