Oil prices rallied on Wednesday to mark another settlement at their highest since October 2014. “We’ve seen fresh 7-year highs for both Brent and U.S. crude oil prices, as concerns over geopolitical tensions serve to keep a floor under prices,” while a temporary pipeline outage between Iraq and Turkey “added another layer of complexity to the story for oil prices and serves to keep markets on edge,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK. The flow of oil through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has resumed following an explosion nearby that led to its shutdown, news reports said. Adding support to oil prices, the International Energy Agency raised its oil demand growth expectations for 2022. February West Texas Intermediate crude climbed by $1.53, or 1.8%, to settle at $86.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the highest front-month WTI contract finish since Oct. 8, 2014, FactSet data show.
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