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The price of oil has settled above US$50 a barrel for the first time in nearly a year.

The July benchmark contract for West Texas Intermediate crude closed Tuesday at US$50.36, an increase of 67 cents from the previous day.

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That’s the first time oil has settled above the US$50 mark since last July.

“$50 is a big psychological hurdle for crude oil, and it’s one that it’s been bumping up against for a couple of weeks now,” said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets Canada.

“To see it break through is very encouraging and suggests that there is enough support to keep carrying crude oil higher.”

In February, oil settled as low as US$26.21 a barrel.

“It’s a pretty spectacular move in a fairly relatively short period of time,” Cieszynski said.

Inventories declined by three million barrels in the week ended June 3, according to a Bloomberg survey before a report from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it won’t attempt to repair a key pipeline in Nigeria for now after militants attacked it a second time last week.

Crude has surged about 90 percent from that 12-year low in February amid unexpected disruptions and a continuous slide in U.S. output, which is under pressure from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ policy of pumping without limits. Saudi Arabia will maintain the same level of production capacity until 2020 under a new economic reform plan approved by the government to reduce its reliance on oil.