The dramatic increase in oil supply from the U.S. and Canada—coupled with a surprise surge in Iraqi output—helped stave off global demand pressures brought on by a cold U.S. winter and geopolitical concerns over rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The International Energy Agency, a watchdog for the world’s biggest energy consumers, said North American output helped mitigate a bigger-than-expected draw from global crude inventories, caused by a colder than usual winter in the U.S. also helped keep global markets supplied, and prices in check. In recent years, new drilling and extraction techniques employed across North America—from shale-oil deposits in Texas to oil-sands reserves in Alberta—have boosted global supply. amid big, recent output disruptions. U.S. and European economic sanctions against Iran have choked off a big chunk of Iranian oil to world markets, and Libyan unrest has all but shut off that country’s once-prodigious oil shipments. Recent worry centered […]