WTI climbs to highest level in three weeks above $43

• Crude oil prices rise for the fourth straight day on Thursday.
• Hurricane Delta is causing US oil output to decline.
• Ongoing strikes in Norway threat additional production reductions.

Crude oil prices continued to rise on Thursday and the barrel of West Texas Intermediate, which closed the first three days of the week in the positive territory, touched its highest level since September 13th at $41.30. As of writing, the WTI was up 3.15% on the day at $41.25.

Supply reductions support oil prices

Oil market's supply dynamics seem to be the primary driver of crude oil prices this week. According to the latest reports, Hurricane Delta is expected to intensify into a category-3 hurricane in the Gulf Coast and nearly 1.5 million barrels of daily output has been halted.

Meanwhile, the ongoing strike in Norway could reportedly extend to the country's largest oil field, Johan Sverdrup, and cause an additional decline of 470,000 barrels per day in the country's oil output.

On the other hand, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that they are unlikely to support a standalone airline bill without a comprehensive COVID relief bill. Although this development doesn't seem to be having a negative impact on crude oil prices for the time being, any improvements on the supply side could cause investors to shift their focus to US stimulus talks and weigh on WTI.

Technical levels to watch for