Oil prices climbed on Friday as traders stayed focused on supply problems, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery rose 1.3 U.S. dollars, or 1.75 percent, to settle at 75.67 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for May delivery increased 50 cents, or 0.63 percent, to close at 79.77 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The above market moves came as the nervousness sparked by the turbulences in the banking sector has generally abated, and oil participants paid attention to supply outages.
"Traders remained focused on the situation in Kurdistan," as "the region's exports have been recently halted, and producers have been forced to shut output at some oilfields," Vladimir Zernov, analyst with market information supplier FX Empire, said on Friday.