Crude oil futures ended higher on Wednesday on rising geopolitical tensions amid reports of a likely strike by Iran against Israel. The move by Iran follows after three sons of a Hamas leader were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military confirmed carrying out the attack, describing the three sons as operatives in the Hamas armed wing. Meanwhile, data from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed crude oil inventories shot up by 5.8 million barrels last week after jumping by 3.2 million barrels in the previous week. Also, EIA has sharply raised its forecast for crude oil output. It expects output to increase by 280,000 bpd to 13.21 million bpd in 2024, up from its earlier forecast of a 20,000 bpd increase.
Benchmark crude oil futures for May delivery surged 81 cents or 1% to settle at $86.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for June delivery rose 88 cents or 1% to $90.30 per barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.