Oil was steady near the highest since November after the International Energy Agency added to warnings of a shortfall.

West Texas Intermediate traded near $89 a barrel, after dipping 0.4% on Wednesday. Demand will eclipse supply by 1.2 million barrels a day on average during the second half, the IEA projected Wednesday. That came a day after OPEC and the US also said they saw global consumption exceeding production.

The bullish outlooks added momentum to a rally that started in mid-June as Saudi Arabia and Russia curbed supply while US and Chinese demand proved relatively resilient. WTI has risen 12% over the past three weeks, and timespreads are in a bullish backwardation pattern, indicating scarce supply.

There was some bearish news on Wednesday, with government data showing US nationwide crude inventories snapped a streak of declines to rise for the first time in five weeks amid the highest imports since 2019. However, inventories at the key storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma declined.

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