Oil settles higher on Red Sea tensions

Brent crude futures settled up 47 cents, or 0.6%, at US$79.70 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude settled up 28 cents, or 0.4%, to US$74.22 a barrel.

NEW YORK: Oil prices settled slightly higher after a choppy trading session on Wednesday as investors worried about global trade disruption and tensions in the Middle East following attacks on ships by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi forces in the Red Sea.

Limiting price gains were a surprise US crude inventory build, larger than expected fuel stocks gains and record domestic oil production.