Crude oil prices hit a 2015 high on Thursday as the situation in Yemen prompted fears over Middle Eastern supply levels, according to Reuters.
U.S. crude rose $1.58 at $57.74 a barrel. Its session peak of $58.41 was a 2015 high.
U.K. North Sea Brent , a global benchmark for oil, finished up $2.12, or 3.3 percent, at $64.85 a barrel. Its session high was a 2015 peak of $65.58.
“The Saudi escalation of its Yemen campaign is producing exactly the kind of geopolitical tensions oil is known to rally for,” Gene McGillian, senior analyst at Tradition Energy, an oil markets advisory in Stamford, Connecticut, told Reuters.
“You also have the assumption that U.S. production will continue to decline from cutbacks in oil rigs count and exploration expenditure, though I’m not too much of a believer in such improving fundamentals,” he said.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Yemen’s southern coast controls access to the Red Sea, Suez Canal and the ports of western Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter.
