Oil futures: Crude extends gains on Libya outages, Red Sea turmoilQuantum Commodity Intelligence – Crude oil futures in European trading hours Thursday were climbing higher as markets consolidated the previous session's firm gains of over 3%, which came after protests in Libya shut in output at the county's largest oil field. Front-month Mar24 ICE Brent futures were trading at $78.96/b (1230 GMT), compared to Wednesday's settle of $78.25/b. The threats to Libyan output add to the wider Middle East turmoil, with the security situation in and around the Red Sea deteriorating and forcing many ships, including oil and LNG tankers, to divert around the southern African coast. InventoriesCrude prices were neutral after data from the American Petroleum Institute revealed that crude inventories tumbled by 7.4 million barrels last week, beating forecasts for a drop of 3 million barrels. But the drop in crude stocks was more than offset by the products sector, with gasoline inventories up 6.9 million barrels and distillate stocks adding 6.7 million barrels to deliver a net build.
