Oil prices were elevated on Thursday with the price of West Texas Intermediate piercing through the psychological $70 mark once again following a day-prior drop after a report showed an unexpectedly sharp rise in US gasoline inventories. At the time of writing, the price of WTI is trading at $70.11 and higher by 0.55% after recovering from a low of $68.71, albeit off its highs for the day of $70.62. There was a sharp spike in the late morning of the US session when news that the US will lift oil sanctions on Iran initially sparked a fall in oil prices, but the market recovered with WTI gaining 0.4% to USD70.22/bbl. (full story)