Investing.com – Crude oil prices settled higher on Thursday as investors continued to cheer mostly positive EIA inventory data but upside in Brent prices were capped on reports the Forties pipeline could restart as soon as January.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for January delivery rose 27 cents to settle at $58.36 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent added 35 cents to trade at $64.91 a barrel.
Ineos, operator of the Forties pipeline, which had been on outage since Dec. 11, said it expected the pipeline to resume operations in early January.
"Based on current estimates the company expects to bring the pipeline progressively back to normal rates early in the new year," Ineos said in a statement.
The shutdown of the Forties pipeline, which carries 40% of North Sea oil and gas, has provided key support for Brent crude prices to steady above two-year highs amid signs that market rebalancing is underway.
The sharp uptick in Brent crude prices, however, has widen the WTI, Brent crude oil spread, encouraging US producers ramp up output and exports to meet growing demand.
The Energy Information Administration figures on Wednesday showed U.S. oil production at 9.79 million barrels a day, while exports reached 1.86 million barrels a day, near record highs.
The uptick in US production last week was offset somewhat by falling crude supplies for a fifth straight week.
Inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 6.5 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 15, beating expectations of a draw of 3.8 million barrels, according to EIA data Wednesday.