Brent up 0.8, WTI up 0.9
Market concerns about further escalation of RussiaUkraine tensions
U.S. crude inventories rose by 545,000 barrels last week

SINGAPORE, Nov 21 Reuters Oil prices climbed on Thursday as geopolitical concerns over escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine outweighed the impact of a biggerthanexpected increase in U.S. crude inventories.

Brent crude futures rose 60 cents, or 0.82, to 72.81 as of 0734 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 64 cents, or 0.93, to 69.39.

Ukraine fired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia on Wednesday, the latest Western weapon it has been permitted to use on Russian targets, a day after it fired U.S. ATACMS missiles.

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons to strike Russian territory far from the border would be a major escalation in the conflict. Kyiv says that in order to defend itself it must be able to strike Russian rear bases used to support Moscow39;s invasion, which entered its 1,000th day this week.

For oil, the risk is if Ukraine targets Russian energy infrastructure, while the other risk is uncertainty over how Russia responds to these attacks, said ING analysts in a note.

JPMorgan analysts added that oil consumption recovered in the past week because of better travel demand in the U.S. and India, while the latter also showed a significant rise in industrial demand.

Global oil demand is estimated to have reached 103.6 million barrels per day bpd during…