LONDON—Oil rose on Thursday as the prospect of heightened geopolitical risks outweighed recession fears after a flurry of central bank interest rate hikes, including from the Bank of England.
Brent crude futures were up 70 cents, or 0.78 percent, to $90.53 per barrel by 1054 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 71 cents, or 86 percent, at $83.65.
Prices rose by more than $1 earlier in the session.
Russia pushed ahead on Thursday with its biggest conscription since World War Two, raising concerns an escalation of the war in Ukraine could further hurt supply.
Keeping a cap on prices, the Bank of England raised its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 2.25 percent and said it would continue to “respond forcefully, as necessary” to inflation, despite the economy entering recession.
Following the Federal Reserve’s hefty 75 bps rise on Wednesday, rate increases also came thick and fast from the Swiss National Bank, Norges bank, and Indonesia’s central bank, with a further hike expected from the South African Reserve bank later in the day.
“This just shows how synchronised this current tightening cycle is,” Deutsche Bank said.
The Fed also signaled on Wednesday that U.S. borrowing costs would keep rising this year, in a move that sent Brent and WTI to a near two-week low.
Further pressure followed stock builds. U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels in the week to Sept. 16 to 430.8 million barrels, smaller than analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.2 million-barrel rise.
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