Oil prices climb amid frost in U.S.

2021-02-16 22:06:08 GMT2021-02-17 06:06:08(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

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NEW YORK, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Oil prices advanced on Tuesday as a deep freeze threatened energy supplies in Texas, a key crude producing state in the United States.

The West Texas Intermediate for March delivery added 58 cents to settle at 60.05 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for April delivery increased 5 cents to close at 63.35 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

"The cold weather in the U.S. is now being cited as another reason for the high oil prices," Eugen Weinberg, energy analyst at Commerzbank Research, said in a note on Tuesday.

"And it is true that the frost in Texas has not only brought the power supply and production of over a million barrels of crude oil per day to a standstill, but has also hindered the operation of pipelines and other means of transport, as well as refineries on the Texan Gulf Coast," he said.

The U.S. crude benchmark did not settle on Monday because of Presidents' Day. For the week ending Friday, the WTI rose 4.6 percent, while Brent logged a weekly gain of 5.2 percent. Enditem

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