Oil futures resumed their rise on Thursday, with U.S. and global crude prices climbing back to their highest settlements since March 13, after ending lower a day earlier. Oil refiners are coming out of maintenance season and “demand for fossil fuels around the globe is surging,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group. He believes those factors will contribute to what he refers to as a “new season of big petroleum supply draws in the coming weeks,” after the Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday a weekly drop of 7.5 million barrels in U.S. crude supplies. May West Texas Intermediate crude CLK23 rose $1.40, or 1.9%, to settle at $74.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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