By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Shares of integrated oil companies as well as downstream operators were gainers in Wednesday’s premarket trading as crude prices scaled new highs.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) were up 0.5%-1% while Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), BP (NYSE:BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDSa) gained 1.5%-2.5%.
Crude oil prices have risen to their highest in nearly three years as the recovery in global demand, notably in China and the U.S., has whittled away the stockpiles that accumulated during the early phase of the pandemic. U.S. inventory numbers from the American Petroleum Institute showed a draw of 7.2 million barrels on Tuesday, extending a run of large reductions thanks to increased demand for all types of motor fuel. including jet fuel. The U.S. government's inventory data are due at 10:30 AM ET.
Prices got another leg up on Wednesday from newswire reports indicating that the so-called OPEC+ bloc of major producers is likely to agree to increase output by only 500,000 barrels a day at its next monthly meeting. Some in the market had expected an increase of as much as 1 million barrels a day.
By 8:35 AM ET, U.S. crude futures were up 1% at $73.59 a barrel, a level not seen since October 2018.
Brent Brent Oil Futures was up 1% at $75.56, after breaching $75 a barrel during the previous session for the first time since April 2019.