Oil prices rallied again on Thursday to hit 13-month highs as concerns that a rare cold snap in Texas could disrupt U.S. crude output for days or even weeks prompted fresh buying.
Brent crude was up 56 cents, or 0.9%, at $64.90 a barrel at 0744 GMT, after rising to $65.62 earlier in the session, its highest since Jan. 20, 2020.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 46 cents, or 0.8%, to $61.60 a barrel, after earlier rising to $62.26, the highest since Jan. 8, 2020.
Both benchmarks rose about $1 on Wednesday and have gained about 6% since their close last Thursday.
Texas’ freeze entered a sixth day on Thursday, as the largest energy-producing state in the United States grappled with massive refining outages and oil and gas shut-ins that rippled beyond its borders into neighbouring Mexico.
Roughly 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude production has been shut, according to Wood Mackenzie analysts, and it could be weeks before it is fully restored…
