West Texas Intermediate has breached technical resistance at the October 2015 high and now trades at the highest level since July 2015.

Also known as Light Sweet Crude due to its low sulphur content, WTI has rallied from intraday lows of $26 in February as OPEC toys with the idea of a production freeze and US shale operations cease.

The recent rally has come as welcome relief to oil companies, many of whom were operating very close or below their marginal cost of production.

However, the recent rally may not be all good news. Many analysts predict if the price were to rise much further it would bring a large proportion of offline shale operations, back online, increasing supply and reintroducing downside pressure on the price.

Oil bulls may already be concerned as there have been signs of operations restarting, the Baker Hughes rig count rose last week, the first increase of 2016.