Oil prices have pushed above $50 a barrel for the first time this year as investors weigh the impact of supply disruptions and US figures showing a decline in crude inventories.  ICE July Brent crude rose as much as 1 per cent to $50.26 a barrel on Thursday in Asia and US benchmark West Texas Intermediate as far as $49.97, a gain of 0.8 per cent.  Michael Wittner, analyst at Société Générale, said: “We expect global crude markets to continue to be driven by supply disruptions, especially in Nigeria and Canada.”  Wildfires are estimated to have knocked out about 1m barrels a day of Canadian production in May and militant activity has cut output in Nigeria to less than 1.4m b/d, 40 per cent down from its recent peak.  Crude has almost doubled since hitting 12-year lows in January on the belief the market will start to rebalance as supplies of high-cost oil decline and rising consumption from motorists and other oil users helps take care of excess stocks.  Government data on Wednesday showed a sharp decline in crude stocks in the US, the biggest oil consumer, from near-record levels of about 540m barrels. The US Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories fell by 4.2m barrels in the past week, surpassing expectations.  “US oil inventories have largely topped out and should decline through the summer,” said analysts at Citi. The bank believes global oil stocks could start falling by the end of the second quarter, spurred by disruptions in countries such as Nigeria and the wildfires in Canada.

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