NEW YORK: Oil prices rose on Thursday as Britain's largest oilfield was shut down for the second time in less than a week, and as a major US refinery prepared to re-start this month.
US crude's discount to international benchmark North Sea Brent also narrowed after Genscape reported that oil stocks at the major US Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub fell by more than a million barrels between May 31 and June 4.
US crude also garnered support after BP Plc said an unit at the center of a $4-billion revamp of its 405,000 barrel per day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery is on schedule to restart by the end of June.
Brent crude oil futures for July settled 57 cents higher at $103.61 a barrel. US oil settled up $1.02 higher at $94.76 per barrel.
The Brent-WTI spread dropped precipitously at around 9 a.m. EDT, to $8.50 from nearly $9, in 20 minutes, before easing in to a range of $8.60 to $8.90.
The spread settled at $8.85 on Thursday, after swinging between around $7 and $10 in the past three weeks.
"Genscape showing a million-barrel draw, I think that's lent some bullish sentiment to US crude, along with the news on Whiting," said Andy Lebow, vice president at Jefferies Bache in New York.
The 200,000 bpd Buzzard oilfield in the UK North Sea has suffered a production outage, its operator Nexen said on Thursday, the second in less than a week. Buzzard had restarted earlier this week following an equipment failure.
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