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Oil prices get biggest gain in the past decade

22 September 2008 08:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vugar Mustafayev - APA-Economics. Oil prices rose almost seven per cent yesterday to cap their biggest three-day rally in more than a decade.
The increase was based on expectations that a sweeping U.S. government bailout plan would boost liquidity across the battered financial markets.
U.S. crude jumped $6.67 U.S. to settle at $104.55 a barrel, bringing gains since Wednesday to 14.7 per cent. London Brent rose $4.42 to $99.61.
Investors had worried that the confluence of crises on Wall Street severely threatened the stability of the U.S. economy -- a factor that helped push oil to a seven-month low of $90.51 a barrel earlier in the week.
Oil prices remain sharply down from their peak above $147 a barrel in mid-July, pressured by mounting evidence that high energy costs and economic troubles are undercutting global fuel consumption.
Oil prices also got a boost yesterday from weakness in the U.S. dollar -- which strengthens overseas buying power in commodities -- and disruptions of supply from the hurricane-hit U.S. and from OPEC-member Nigeria.
About 89.2 per cent of oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico remains idle.