Oil extends gains

Reuters

Tokyo

Oil futures rose for a second straight session on Tuesday, with U.S. crude hitting a seven-month high, as the market focused on supply disruptions that prompted long-time bear Goldman Sachs to issue a bullish assessment on near-term prices.

Crude oil prices have rallied for most of the past two weeks due to a combination of Nigerian, Venezuelan and other outages, declining U.S. output and curtailments of Canadian crude after fires in Alberta's oil sands region.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up 67 cents at $48.39 a barrel at 0635 GMT, the highest since October.

Brent crude futures were up 37 cents at $49.34 a barrel, near the six-month high of $49.47 reached on Monday.

Outages throughout May will average 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd), Energy Aspects analyst Amrita Sen said in a research note. "The longer these outages, the quicker the pace of rebalancing," Sen said.