Oil prices began the year at 18-month highs, keeping most of their gains despite pressure from a strong US dollar, partly thanks to a predicted fall in US inventories and optimism that key producers would stick to pledges to cut outputs.
Benchmark Brent was worth $55.57, up by $0.10, per barrel in mid-afternoon trading on Wednesday.
The price was slightly above the level reported by Upstream in its last issue of 2016.
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