Oil rises towards $ 64

Wednesday, 20 December 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

London (Reuters): Oil edged up towards $ 64 a barrel on Tuesday, supported by the Forties pipeline outage in the North Sea, OPEC-led supply cuts and expectations that U.S. crude inventories fell for a fifth week.

Rising output in the United States put a lid on gains, however. Shale production will rise to a record in January, according to a government forecast published on Monday, as higher prices encourage companies to pump more.

Brent crude LCOc1, the global benchmark, was up 34 cents to $ 63.75 a barrel at 1114 GMT. US crude CLc1 also gained 34 cents to $ 57.50.

The unplanned shutdown of Forties since last week has supported Brent in particular, as Forties is the largest of the North Sea crude grades underpinning the benchmark. Brent reached $ 65.83, its highest since mid-2015, on 12 December.