Crude oil prices continued to rise Wednesday morning, bolstered by a strike at Brazil’s state oil producer Petrobras and the closure of a key Libyan oil export terminal.

Mounting U.S. crude oil inventories failed to dent prices.

Crude stocks rose by an estimated 2.8 million barrels last week to 479.9 million, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday. [API/S]

Government inventory data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration will be released later this morning.

In the meantime, U.S. WTI crude oil was up 20 cents at $48.08 a barrel, up 10 percent from a week ago.

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