Oil scores best opening week in half a decade

Oil had its strongest opening week for any year since 2013 as refiners and exporters whittled away at crude inventories tucked away in US storage tanks.
 

Futures rose 1.7 per cent this week in New York. The pull on oil stockpiles in the world’s biggest economy accelerated to 7.42 million barrels last week, a level last seen in early August. 

US inventories are shrinking at a time when OPEC and allies producers including Russia are working to trim a global glut that triggered the 2014 market crash.

Oil in New York has reached a level where profits are high enough to encourage a further expansion in US drilling, compounding speculation that Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ effort to tame the oversupply may prove self-defeating.