Oil has benefitted from the broader risk-on.....>

OIL: Oil has benefitted from the broader risk-on tone observed overnight,

running higher over the last couple of hours, with little in the way of

catalysts apparent.

- WTI & Brent both sit around $0.75 higher at writing.

- Focus remains on the political situation centring on Venezuela.

- The benchmark metrics recovered on Thursday, after struggling on the back of

the latest DoE weekly inventory report. The latest round of EIA data showed a

headline crude inventory build (roughly in line with the latest API estimate),

while gasoline stocks also rose, by a slightly higher than exp. amount, with

distillate stocks revealing a surprise, albeit modest, drawdown. U.S. crude

production held steady at record levels in the latest week.

- Also worth highlighting that Russian Energy Min Novak revealed that there are

no plans for an emergency OPEC+ meeting in the wake of events in Venezuela.

- Several Libyan export ports are closed owing to bad weather.