Oil is trading at a more than two-year high Friday, bringing much needed succour to cash strapped oil producers like Nigeria.
The international benchmark settled on Thursday in New York at a 27-month high of $59.30, up 1.5 per cent on the day.
The market was buoyed as comments from Saudi Arabia earlier in the week kept alive speculation on an extension to supply cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC producers.
The S&P/ASX 200 Energy index was up 0.7 per cent in Sydney while the broader S&P/ASX index was flat. Beach Energy and Origin Energy among the biggest gainers up 2.4 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively. Santos and Woodside Petroleum each added 0.7 per cent. At a point, Brent Oil climbed 0.2 per cent to $59.42 a barrel.
With oil sitting just below a psychological mark of $60, traders were beginning to ask if a further rise will trigger a price rally not seen since 2014.
