Oil Prices Up on Wildfires in Canada, US Inventories Drawdown Expectations

Industry

Oil prices rose in early trade on Wednesday as large wildfires were threatening Canada's oil sands and as the market expected US crude oil and gasoline inventories to show a drawdown later in the day. Brent crude futures were up 34 cents, or 0.4% at $82.71 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) rose 38 cents, or 0.5%, to $78.39 a barrel. A large wildfire was approaching Fort McMurray, the hub for Canada's oil sands industry with production of around 3.3 million barrels per day, or two-thirds of the country's total output, and thousands in suburbs were told to evacuate. Source: Qatar News Agency