Oil prices surge on Libya disruption and Red Sea attacks

Oil prices rose by nearly 3 per cent on Wednesday on the back of supply concerns after reports of disruption in Libya's largest oilfield as well as the continuing attacks in the Red Sea. "Strong supply growth was one factor dragging fossil-fuel prices lower in 2023," UBS strategists said in a note on Wednesday. "Looking back at 2023, oil prices ended lower than we had expected. However, despite Opec+ removing output from May onwards, the oil market was "less undersupplied in the second half of 2023 than we had expected". Supply growth outside Opec+ was also strong, with total production up by about 1.8 million bpd in 2023.