SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Wednesday, pushed up by supply disruptions in Libya and Canada and after U.S. officials said all countries should stop Iranian crude imports from November.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $76.60 per barrel at 0111 GMT, up 29 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $70.79 a barrel, up 26 cents, or 0.3 percent.
The United States has told countries to cut imports of Iranian oil to zero from November, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday.
“Oil prices were flying higher overnight after catching an updraft from the U.S. administration calling for allies to cut Iran imports to zero tolerance,” said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA.
He also warned “Libya will continue to be a significant point of concern in the oil supply chain”.
A power struggle between the official government and rebels has left it unclear who will handle Libya’s large oil reserves, although as of late Tuesday sources said the country’s oil ports of Hariga and Zueitina in eastern Libya appeared to be working normally.
For North America, Innes said “the market continues to focus on Syncrude Canada where 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) remain in limbo after a transformer blew and shut a critical oil sands upgrader on June 2”. He added that repairs would likely last until the end of July.
Innes said the outage had contributed to a major draw in U.S. crude oil inventories.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday reported a 9.2 million barrel reduction in U.S.
