Weaker dollar lifts oil prices from five-week low

Reuters

Published Nov 02, 2016 09:39PM ET

Updated Nov 02, 2016 09:50PM ET

Weaker dollar lifts oil prices from five-week low

By Mark Tay

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Crude oil prices rose on Thursday as a weaker U.S. dollar buoyed sentiment in the market, lifting prices from five-week lows.

Brent crude was trading up 55 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $47.41 a barrel by 0129 GMT after touching a five-week low at $46.46 in the previous session.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 50 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $45.84 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar index slipped for a third session in a row on Thursday and was down 0.09 percent on concerns over the outcome of next week's U.S. presidential election. A weak dollar makes dollar-denominated oil less costly for importing countries.

The weaker dollar provided the market with some reprieve even as crude prices fell to five-week lows in the previous session as U.S. crude oil stockpiles soared more than 14 million barrels last week, the largest weekly build since the U.S. Energy Information Administration started keeping records in 1982.

Concerns over supply disruptions in Nigeria also supported prices as militants in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta oil hub attacked a pipeline operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Wednesday.