SEOUL: Oil’s revival from the biggest crash in a generation persisted, with prices set for a second annual gain after weathering everything from hurricanes and Middle East conflict to the tussle between Opec and US shale.
Benchmark futures are up more than 11% in 2017, after going into a bull market in September. While gains were driven by glut-shrinking output cuts by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its allies including Russia, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East as well as pipeline disruptions from the North Sea to Canada and Libya have also helped.