Futures were steady in New York after rising 3.8 percent in the previous three sessions. Global demand will climb this year by the most since 2015, the IEA said Wednesday. OPEC on Tuesday raised estimates for the amount of crude it will need to supply in 2018 on stronger consumption from Europe and China. U.S. oil output gained last week as operations returned after Hurricane Harvey. The IEA report “was taken as confirmation of the prevalent supply-tightening narrative, that that oil surplus is slowly disappearing,” said Norbert Ruecker, head of commodity research at Julius Baer Group Ltd. Still, crude is “trading at the upper end of a fundamentally justified price range” and the “upcoming seasonal demand soft patch is set to create near-term headwinds.” Click Read More below for more of the story.

National Average Price for Regular – Current: $2.863; Month Ago: $2.932; Year Ago: $2.280. National Average Price for Diesel – Current: $3.175; Month Ago: $3.188; Year Ago: $2.465.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last week $1.3B in new supports for the steel and lumber industries hit hard by U.S. tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel, and softwood lumber, long subject to U.S. tariffs, is currently taxed at 45% after the Trump administration's hike last month. Carney said the decades-long process of an ever-closer economic relationship between Canada and the United States is now over. "As a consequence, many of our strengths have become vulnerabilities. Last year, more than 75% of our exports went to the United States. Ninety percent of our lumber exports, 90% of our aluminum exports, and 90% of our steel exports, all bound for a single market," Carney said.