Oil prices continued their march higher on Thursday, after major global producers said they continued to hold down supply.
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures (CL=F) were trading at their highest since mid-January 2020, after breaching the $56 mark on Wednesday. Crude was up 0.7% to $56.06 (£41.22) at around 5.30am eastern time in the US (10.30am in London).
Meanwhile brent oil futures (BZ=F), the international benchmark, were trading at $58.82 (£35.95), up 0.6% and their highest since late February last year.
It came after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies (OPEC+) announced "high compliance" among member states with agreements to limit supply to force up prices.
A committee of member countries' representatives had held a virtual meeting on Wednesday, and gave no signals of a looming let-up in the cartel's supply cuts.
© Provided by Yahoo! Finance UKUS crude oil prices as of 4 February. Chart: Yahoo Finance UK
A statement said countries had held down production by a total of 2.1 billion barrels since April 2020, when the market suffered an historic collapse and futures prices even briefly turned negative.
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"The committee welcomed the positive performance of participating countries," it said. "Participants pledged to achieve full conformity and make up for previous compensation short-falls, and stressed the importance of accelerating market rebalancing without delay."
Oil prices had been making gains already earlier in the week amid a resurgence in confidence in wider financial markets.
"While economic prospects and oil demand would remain uncertainin the coming months, the gradual rollout of vaccines around the world is a positive factor for the rest of the year, boosting the global economy and oil demand," added OPEC's statement.
It comes as shares in London-listed energy giant Shell (RDSB.L) lost more than 1% on Thursday, despite the company raising its dividend.
The company posted an 87% decline in its adjusted fourth-quarter profits to $393m (£289m), lower than expected by analysts. It recorded a full-year loss of $21.7bn (£16bn) after lower oil prices forced it to follow rival BP in writing down the value of its assets.
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