Investing.com – WTI crude oil prices settled higher after data showed US domestic oil supplies fell for the first time in four weeks as exports surged to record highs.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for March delivery rose 1.77% settle at $62.77 a barrel, while on London\'s Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 1.35% to trade at $66.30 a barrel.
Inventories of U.S. crude fell by 1.616 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 9, confounding expectations for a rise of 2.355 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories – one of the products that crude is refined into – rose by just 261,000 barrels, above expectations for a build of 283,000 barrels, while supplies of distillate – the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil – fell by 2.422 million barrels, a steeper fall than the 1.460 million barrels forecast.
The upbeat gasoline and distillate supplies data come despite refinery utilization under pressure as refiners remained in a period of maintenance.
Lower refinery activity usually lowers demand for crude leading to a build in supplies. Some said, however, that the surprise draw in crude supplies was supported by added incentive to sell rather than store crude as current prices traded at premium to forward prices – a market structure known as backwardation.
Also supporting the larger draw in crude supplies was a rise in crude exports to above 2 million barrels a day, near an all-time high set in 2017, as the widening Brent-WTI price differential boosted foreign demand of American supplies.
U.S. weekly oil production remained close to record levels at 10.27 million barrels a day, which keeps the US on track to meet the EIA’s recent estimate for domestic production to top 11 million barrels per day by year-end.