In an up-and-down, volatile market, crude oil prices pushed higher heading into the holiday weekend. “The crude oil market has never seen something like this, as far as an ongoing loss of anywhere from 12 to 15 million barrels per day of crude oil,” said Mike Zuzolo, Commodity Analytics and Consulting, “You could put the 1973-1974 oil problem and the 1979-1980 problem together and those two combined did not hit the market as hard in terms of supply losses as what we’re dealing with right now. The volatility, I think, is only going to get ratcheted up after the three-day weekend.” On Thursday, Brent crude oil prices settled at just over $109 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude approached $114 per barrel, before closing at $111.54 per barrel.
