Daily Times

Crude oil prices climbed on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported crude oil inventories had shed 5.9 million barrels in the week to April 9 compared with an inventory draw of 3.5 million barrels for the previous week.

At 1540 hours GMT, Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, was trading at $66.29 a barrel after gaining 4.11 percent. Likewise, the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 4.44 percent to reach $62.85 a barrel. The price for Opec Basket was recorded at $61.46 a barrel with 0.52 percent increase, Arab Light was available at $63.90 a barrel with 1.46 percent increase while price of Russian Sokol increased 1.47 percent to reach $63.40 a barrel.

The EIA’s inventory estimate comes a day after the American Petroleum Institute reported a 3.6-million-barrel inventory draw in crude oil for the same period but a 5.565-million-barrel build in gasoline stocks, which prevented oil prices from swinging significantly up or down.

For gasoline, the EIA estimated a modest inventory build of 300,000 barrels for the week to April 9, with production averaging 9.6 million bpd. This compared with a stock build of 4 million barrels for the previous week and an average production rate of 9.3 million bpd. In middle distillates, the authority estimated an inventory decline of 2.1 million barrels for the week to April 9, with production averaging 4.6 million bpd, virtually unchanged from the week before last, with inventories adding 1.5 million barrels.