Singapore: U.S. crude oil rose to a two-year high on Friday, as the shutdown of a major crude pipeline from Canada to the United States tightened North American markets.
Trading activity is expected to be very low on Friday due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $58.44 a barrel at 0550 GMT, up 42 cents, or 0.7 percent from their last settlement. Price rose to as much as $58.58 a barrel early on Friday, the highest since July 1, 2015.Brent crude futures were at $63.42, down 13 cents. In a sign of a tightening market, both crude benchmarks are in backwardation, where spot prices are higher than those for future delivery, which makes it unattractive for traders to store oil for later sale. The closure of the 590,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Keystone pipeline following a spill last week has driven up U.S. crude as stockpiles at the storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, have declined, traders said.