Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report
Crude oil prices appreciated today as a weaker U.S. dollar buoyed sentiment in the market, lifting prices from five-week lows.
Also, concerns over supply disruptions in Nigeria supported prices as militants in the Niger Delta oil hub attacked a pipeline operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Wednesday.
The brent crude traded up 55 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $47.41 a barrel after touching a five-week low at $46.46 in the previous session.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 50 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $45.84 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar index slipped for a third session in a row yesterday and was down 0.09 percent on concerns over the outcome of next week’s U.S. presidential election, just as weak dollar makes dollar-denominated oil less costly for importing countries.
The weaker dollar provided the market with some reprieve even as crude prices fell to five-week lows in the previous session as U.S. crude oil stockpiles soared more than 14 million barrels last week, the largest weekly build since the U.S. Energy Information Administration started keeping records in 1982.