Oil Prices Gain After Bigger-than-Expected Fall in US Stockpiles

Oil prices gain and traded higher on Wednesday after an industry report said U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week.

Brent crude futures rose 51 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $62.89 a barrel by 0405 GMT, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up 54 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $57.94 a barrel.

Prices had ended lower on Tuesday, squeezed by speculation of sanctions-hit Iranian crude returning to the market following U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to fire national security adviser John Bolton, a noted Iran policy hawk.

But they rebounded after American Petroleum Institute (API) data late on Tuesday showed U.S. crude oil and gasoline stocks fell last week, while distillate stocks built.

“Oil should remain supported in Asian trading, mostly supported by the overnight API crude inventory data,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA.

The API numbers had U.S. crude inventories down by 7.2 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 6 to 421.9 million, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll of a decrease of 2.7 million barrels.

Iran’s oil exports were slashed by more than 80 percent due to re-imposed sanctions by the United States.

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Source: foxbusiness.com

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