Crude oil futures traded at their highest value in seven days Thursday amid conjecture that Fed Chief Ben Bernanke will touch on strategies of boosting the U.S. economy, Bloomberg reports.
In addition to circumstances surrounding the Fed's annual retreat today and tomorrow, oil also was impacted by indications Saudi Arabia will slash production of Brent crude oil should Libya resume pumping the energy commodity and shipping it.
"Risk aversion has decreased and that's helped oil," analyst Hannes Loacker with Raiffeisen Bank International in Vienna told Bloomberg. "The strength of Brent is a bit of a surprise. We should see substantial Libyan volumes come back by the middle of next year."
At 9:44 a.m. on Thursday, crude oil futures increased 0.86 percent, a 95 cent rise to $111.10 per barrel.
Muammar Gadhafi, Libya's 42-year autocrat who was ousted after more than six months of demonstration and uprising, was believed to be surrounded Thursday in buildings that are part of his compound, CNN reports. When rebels forced him from power earlier this week, Gadhafi vowed not to leave Libya.
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