【Ferro-alloys.com】Crude oil futures climbed for a fifth day in mid-morning trade in Asia Jan. 7, as reports of supply disruptions in North America and Kazakhstan fed the narrative of a severely tightening oil market and headed off concerns about the pandemic.

At 10:26 am Singapore time (0226 GMT), the ICE March Brent futures contract was up 54 cents/b (0.66%) from the previous close at $82.53/b, while the NYMEX February light sweet crude contract rose 53 cents/b (0.67%) at $79.99/b.

"Oil prices continue to edge higher on the back of supply concerns," said ING analysts Warren Patterson and Wenyu Yao in a Jan. 7 note, citing supply disruptions in North America and Kazakhstan.

Western Canada has been in the middle of a deep freeze for the last two weeks, leading to malfunctioning equipment and slowing production in the country's key Alberta oil sands fields as temperatures drop to as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius.

In the US, oil production in North Dakota's Bakken field has also been crippled due to the cold, media reports indicated.

The 590,000 b/d Keystone pipeline, which ships crude from Alberta to the US Midwest, was also temporarily shut Jan. 4, though it has since come back online the following day Jan. 5, operator TC Energy said.

In Central Asia, Kazakhstan, a non-OPEC producer participating in the OPEC+ output agreement and currently producing 1.6 million b/d, has been thrust into turmoil as security forces engage in violent clashes with demonstrators protesting high fuel costs.

The operator of Kazakhstan's highest-producing oil field, Tengiz, said Jan. 6 a logistics issue had caused it to adjust production levels at the site, which is the biggest source of the CPC crude export blend.

The reports have kept a firm floor under oil prices in the week starting Jan. 2 and headed off any lingering concerns about the impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus on oil demand.

Intra-day declines earlier in the week have quickly reversed direction later in the trading session, with prices subsequently settling higher.

"Energy traders are growing very confident this market will remain very tight and now that omicron worries have eased oil prices could have an easy path towards the highs seen in November," said OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya in a note Jan. 7.

• [Editor:zhaozihao]