Investing.com - Crude oil futures declined in Asian trade Friday, but held at near five-week highs as a government report showed that U.S. crude stockpiles fell more than expected.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for October delivery traded at USD88.51 a barrel during early Asian trade, rising 0.37%.
Oil earlier rose as much as 0.89% to trade at USD90.28 a barrel, just below the previous day’s five-week high of USD90.39 a barrel.
Earlier Thursday, the Energy Information Administration reported that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 4.0 million barrels for the week ending September 2, far below market expectations of a 2.2 million barrel decline.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 353.1 million barrels in the EIA’s latest report, after rising by 5.3 million barrels the previous week.
Total gasoline supplies dropped by 0.87 million barrels to 209.9 million, below forecasts of a 1.2 million barrel decline.
In a highly anticipated speech Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke provided no suggestions of possible moves by the Fed to institute further quantitative easing, leaving investors no new clues as to future U.S. oil demand.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Nate continued to move into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to become a hurricane in the next 48 hours, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
British Petroleum and Apache Corp. were reported already beginning evacuations of some non-essential workers from facilities in the region.
The Gulf is home to 29% of U.S. oil production facilities.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, fell 0.18% to 76.21.
Dollar-denominated futures contracts tend to rise when the dollar falls, as oil future purchases become less expensive for investors who hold other currencies.
On the ICE Futures Exchange Brent oil futures for October delivery rose 0.11% to trade at USD114.41.