Investing.com – Crude futures settled higher on Wednesday, buoyed by data showing that supplies of U.S. crude fell by more than expected, easing concerns that U.S. output would continue to derail Opec efforts to reduce excess supply.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for August delivery rose by 1% to settle at $45.49 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent added 0.44% to trade at $47.73 a barrel.
Crude prices settled higher for a third-straight day, after crude and gasoline stockpiles fell more than expected last week, pointing to an uptick in refinery activity.
Inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 7.6m barrels in the week ended July 7, confounding expectations of draw of about only 2.9m barrels.
Gasoline inventories, one of the products that crude is refined into, unexpectedly fell by roughly 1.65m barrels against expectations of a rise of 1.15m barrels while distillate stockpiles rose by 3.13m barrels, compared to expectations of a rise of 1.13m barrels.
The bullish inventory report came after Opec released its monthly report, revealing that output rose by 393,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June amid a ramp in production from Nigeria and Libya – two countries exempt from the current production cuts.
In May, Opec and non-Opec members agreed to extend production cuts of 1.8m bpd for a period of nine months until March, but allowed Nigeria and Libya to remained exempt from the cuts.