Oil prices rose for a second day on Tuesday on supply concerns after an earthquake shuttered a major export terminal in Turkey and a field in the North Sea shut unexpectedly, while demand in China, the world’s biggest importer, looks set to increase.
Brent crude futures rose 40 cents, or 0.5%, to $81.39 per barrel by 0117 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate futures rose 43 cents, or 0.6%, to $74.54 per barrel.
Operations at Turkey’s oil terminal in Ceyhan halted after a major earthquake hit the region. The facility can export up to 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude.
The BTC terminal, which exports Azeri crude oil to international markets, will be closed on Feb. 6-8 while operators assess earthquake damage, a Turkish shipping agent said.
Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ bank in Sydney pointed, in a note, to the Ceyhan closure and the shutdown of the 535,000-bpd Phase 1 of the Johan Sverdrup oil field in Norway’s area of the North Sea as the main drivers for pushing prices higher.
“Signs of stronger demand boosted sentiment,” he added.
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