The price of brent crude oil rose to $70 a barrel on Monday, supported by ongoing output cuts led by OPEC and Russia, and ignoring a rise in U.S. and Canadian drilling activity that points to higher future output in North America. Brent sweet crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $70 per barrel at 0558 GMT, up 13 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $64.53 a barrel, up 23 cents. ANZ bank said on Monday that oil prices had recently risen on data that continued to show that the market was tightening. But other factors, including political risk, also supported crude.

Source: Punch January 15, 2018 09:00 UTC