Crude oil futures climbed for a fifth day in mid-morning trade in Asia Jan. 7, as reports of supply disruptions in North America and Kazakhstan fed the narrative of a severely tightening oil market and headed off concerns about the pandemic.

At 10:26 am Singapore time (0226 GMT), the ICE March Brent futures contract was up 54 cents/b (0.66%) from the previous close at $82.53/b, while the NYMEX February light sweet crude contract rose 53 cents/b (0.67%) at $79.99/b. “Oil prices continue to edge higher on the back of supply concerns,” said ING analysts Warren Patterson and Wenyu Yao in a Jan. 7 note, citing supply disruptions in North America and Kazakhstan. Western Canada has been in the middle of a deep freeze for the last two weeks, leading to malfunctioning equipment and slowing production […]