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Crude prices rise amid Canada supply worries

Xinhua, May 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

Oil prices gained amid extended worries due to massive wildfires in Canada's oil sand area.

The wildfires raging in western Canada that has forced a massive evacuation in Fort McMurray has grown to 101,000 hectares overnight and is moving away from Fort McMurray, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Friday.

More than 88,000 residents have been evacuated from Fort McMurray earlier this week. Several oil production companies including Suncor Energy, Shell and Husky shut plants or reduced production.

Report said that between 900,000 and 1 million barrels a day of oil sands production may be offline due to the blaze, some oil pipelines have been shut down.

The fact that the number of U.S. oil rigs fell for the seventh straight week also helped support the market. According to oil service company Baker Hughes, the number of U.S. oil rigs in use fell by four last week to 328.

The West Texas Intermediate for June delivery moved up 34 cents to settle at 44.66 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery increased 36 cents to close at 45.37 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Endit