High oil prices are here to stay, analysts warn

Crude oil is unlikely to give up its almost 20pc gains in price this year and the risks are tilted toward it moving higher, leading oil analysts have warned.

Brent crude traded in London jumped to $76 a barrel, while oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped more than 1pc today to beyond $72 a barrel


Unrest in Nigeria, including the abduction this week of a three-year old British girl, has helped drive prices higher on concern supplies from the African country will be disrupted.

Kevin Norrish, an analyst at Barclays CapitalGlobal, added: “It is difficult to see why oil prices would fall, brent crude oil has gone higher than we thought, and there are still lots of things that could go wrong, pushing the price higher – hurricanes in the US or tension in Iraq.”

Telegraph